Bioethics

Bioethics is a field of study which concerns the relationship between biology, science, medicine and ethics, philosophy and theology. Bioethicists analyze which medical treatments or technological innovations are moral, when treatments may or may not be used, etc.

Issues discussed in bioethics include whether or not any of the following are ever permissible, and if permissible, under what circumstances:

• Abortion
• Artificial insemination
• Donating one's sperm or eggs
• Genetic engineering
• The obligation of the individual, community, state and nation to provide health care and/or health insurance.
• Homosexuality
• Human cloning
• When to use, and when to withold, life-support
• When to use, and when to withold, artificial hydration and artificial nutrition
• How to treat infertility
• Use of nanotechnology within humans
• Organ transplants and Organ donation
• Stem-cell cloning
• Suicide, assisted suicide and euthanasia
• The use of surrogate mothers

Bioethics may be a purely secular concern; in such cases bioethicists focus on using philosophy to help analyze said concerns. A large number of Jewish and Christian religious scholars have become involved in the field, and have developed rules and guidelines on how to deal with these issues from within the viewpoint of their respective faiths. A smaller number of religious scholars from other religions have recently become involved in this field as well.

See also: Medicine, Ethics