Biomedical ethics for engineers : ethics and decision making in biomedical and biosystem engineering / Daniel A. Vallero

Contents

Prologue: Bioethics -Discovery through Design
A different approach to bioethics
Arguments for and against case analysis
Driver's education analogy
Example case: priming the pump
Case analysis
Notes and commentary

Chapter 1 bioethics: a creative approach
Thought experiments teachable moment: trust.
The principle of double effect teachable moment: the engineer as agent versus judge
Amy the engineer: teachable moment: who was van rensselaer potter?
Credat emptor
Teachable moment: capital punishment, abortion, and the definition of human life
The good engineer
Feedback and enhancement of design
Teachable moment: the good engineer; the profession of engineering
Engineering bioethics and morality; discussion box: ethics and the butterfly effect
"Small" error and devastating outcomes
Technology, engineering, and economics.
Teachable moment: the dismal scientist versus the technological optimist
Engineering competence
Engineering: both integrated and specialized
Who is a professional?
What is technical?;
Systematics: incorporating ethics into the design process
Notes and commentary

Chapter 2 Bioethics and the Engineer
Major bioethical areas
Cloning and stem cell research; teachable moment: nanog
Human enhancement
Patenting life; teachable moment: patenting germplasm
Neuroethics
Organ transplantation
Responsible conduct of human research
Animal testing; is the research worth it? Systematic reality check
Genetically modified organisms; transgenic species; food;
Environmental health: the ethics of scale and the scale of ethics;
Temporal aspects of bioethical decisions: environmental case studies; agent orange; japanese metal industries; minamata mercury case; cadmium and itai itai disease;
Scale is more than size; love canal; times beach; teachable moment: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts;
Active engineering
Ethical theories: a primer; truth; psychological aspects of ethics. Teachable moment: the physiome project: the macroethics of engineering toward health fairness; value as a bioethical and engineering concept; technical optimism versus dismal science
Notes and commentary;

Chapter 3: An Engineered Future: Human Enhancement
Professional zeitgeist: how engineers think
Improvement versus enhancement; engineering intuition; engineers versus economists; intuiting value; deductive and inductive reasoning: precursors to intuition; creativity;
Moral coherence
Creativity and bioethics
The ethical quandary of enhancement
Scientific dissent
Notes and commentary.

Chapter 4: the bioethical engineer.
Chapter 5: Bioethical research and technological development
Chapter 6: Bioethical success and failure
Chapter 7: Analyzing bioethical success and failure
Chapter 8: Justice and fairness as biomedical and biosystem
Chapter 9: Sustainable bioethics
Chapter 10: Engineering wisdom
Epilogue: practical bioethics

Includes index