WEEK VI

Bioethics
NRG 109
DOMINGO T. SO, JR., RN, MAN
SPECIFIC ETHICAL ISSUES
ACQUIRED
IMMUNODEFICIE
NCY
SYNDROME
(aids)
ACQUIRED IMMUNODEFICIENCY
SYNDROME
▪ a chronic, potentially life-threatening condition caused by the
human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). By damaging your
immune system, HIV interferes with your body's ability to fight
infection and disease.

▪ HIV is a sexually transmitted infection (STI). It can also be

spread by contact with infected blood or from mother to child
during pregnancy, childbirth or breast-feeding. Without
medication, it may take years before HIV weakens your
immune system to the point that you have AIDS.
ACQUIRED IMMUNODEFICIENCY
SYNDROME
▪ Transmission of HIV occurs mainly by exchange of body
fluids such as blood, semen, vaginal fluids, breast milk, and
perinatal events.
▪ a particular disease which entirely affects the infected
person: his/her physical appearance, mental, morale, close
relatives, and all his/her social relations.
Key populations at increased risk of HIV-aids
▪ said to be at increased risk of acquiring the HIV infection if
what they are doing, or what they might do if placed in a
facilitating situation, is associated with a high risk of HIV
transmission
• injecting drug users (IDU)
• male and female sex workers
• men who have sex with men
▪ a public health issue worldwide because of its high
prevalence, its pathogenic character, its mortality, and its
morbidity.
Why is aids an issue?
▪ Mainly because of the manner in which AIDS is acquired.
o people infected with the HIV virus often are homosexual,
bisexual, or intravenous drug users

▪ severe discrimination is exercised against AIDS patients.

PSYCHOSOCIAL ISSUES AMONG
HIV/AIDS PATIENTS
1. Emotional—shock, numbness, disbelief, confusion, uncertainty about present and future, denial, guilt,
frequent changes of mood, sadness, and concern about the future.
2. Behavioral—crying, anger expressed verbally and physically, withdrawal, checking the body for signs of
infection/deterioration.
3. Fear of pain, death, disability, loss of functioning, loss of privacy/confidentiality, desertion, etc.
4. Loss of future and ambitions, physical attractiveness and potency, sexual relationship, status in
community, independence, control over life, and confidence.
5. Guilt about the behavior that resulted in HIV infection, infecting others, and disrupting the life of
others.
6. Grief over the loss of health.
7. Isolation due to social stigma.
 PSYCHOSOCIAL ISSUES AMONG
HIV/AIDS PATIENTS
8. Resentment at changes in living patterns.
9. Depression due to absence of a cure, loss of personal control, etc.
10. Anxiety about prognosis, social, occupational, domestic, and sexual hostility and
rejection.
11. Anger about the helplessness of the situation, unfair fate, others who are
infection-free, health care workers, and others who discriminate.
12. Loss of self-esteem due to rejection, loss of confidence, loss of identity, physical
impact of HIV infection, etc.
13. Obsession due to pre-occupation with health.
14. Suicidal thoughts and acts.
 PSYCHOSOCIAL ISSUES AMONG
HIV/AIDS PATIENTS
15. In some instances, a symptom complex similar to post-traumatic stress disorder is
common in the first few weeks after notification of HIV positivity.
16. The person may become extremely anxious and hyper-vigilant about physical
symptoms, exhibiting marked dependence on health care providers.
17. Other responses are—transient or chronic sexual dysfunction and social withdrawal
due to fear of infecting others or of social rejection.
18. Significant others of patients with HIV disease face many stresses associated with the
patient’s illness. They may experience grief response, financial concerns, and lack of
social support due to stigma attached to illness.
19. Many psychiatric syndromes are associated with HIV/AIDS. Depression, anxiety,
paranoia, mania, irritability, psychosis and substance abuse are common in HIV
positive persons.
 screening issues:
A conflict between:
▪ The necessity to protect the population health in general
• Application of the principle of common good
▪ The necessity to protect people as free individuals having
rights
• respecting patient’s autonomy (privacy & confidentiality)

(Conseil pontifical pour la famille 1989)

Stigmatization Follows the Discrimination of HIV
Patients
▪ Discrimination results to hesitation to give care, and gossiping
about patient’s extra marital relationship, create a kind of guilty
feeling, grief, depression, fear, anger, suicidal thought, and act of
self isolation and loss of self-esteem in the patient.
▪ Respect AIDS patients rights to:
• mingled with society, be respected by family, society, get
informed and oriented, privacy, get diagnosis tested and further
treatment, earn his/her own living, get education, get back the
job after treatment, get equal societal treatment,
Ethical Responsibilities:
▪ respect the dignity of their patients by observing privacy and
confidentiality
▪ respect for persons
• respecting the decisions of autonomous persons and protecting persons
who lack decision-making capacity
• obligation to treat persons with respect by maintaining confidences and
keeping promises.
▪ Beneficence
• imposes a positive obligation to act in the best interests of patients
▪ Justice
• requires that people be treated fairly
PSYCHOSOCIAL APPROACHES OF
NURSES
▪ Planning health care for person with HIV/AIDS must involve the multidisciplinary
team.
▪ Interventions include case management, medications, risk reduction, support
groups, crisis intervention, encouragement of productive activity, enhancement of
self-esteem, grief counselling, support during terminal stages, and support of
significant others.
▪ The psychiatric interventions for patients with HIV/AIDS are as follows:
• Helping the patients changes risky behavior, thus promoting prevention of HIV infection.
• Helping patients during the difficult process of HIV testing (pre- and post-test counselling).
• Helping to establish the diagnosis and treatment of other psychiatric illnesses commonly seen
in patients with HIV.
• Implementing psychosocial interventions like psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy,
counselling, etc.
• Helping patients, their families, and others in their lives with interpersonal problems related to
HIV/AIDS.
• Assisting AIDS patients during the final phase of their illness.
 ROLE OF THE NURSE IN PROTECTING
aids PATIENTS

1. Nurse as advocate—change agent

2. Nurse as counsellor, communicator
3. Active implementer responsible and accountable nurse
4. Nurse as a comforter
5. Veracity, fidelity towards HIV patients
Allocation of Scarce Health Resources
Allocation of Scarce Health Resources
▪ Resource allocation is a central part of the decision-making
process in any health care system.
▪ changing the structure of health care system in order to
achieve cost containment.
• An attempt to answers to concerns about high cost and complaints about
the quality of care are explained by the conditions under which
administrative and care decisions are made on a day-to-day basis.
▪ This makes it challenging to meet the medical needs of all
o increased life expectancy and limited health budgets
o continuous physical shortages of resources like donor organs
Allocation of Scarce Health Resources

▪ Resources have always been finite, thus the ethical issues

raised

▪ relate to ethical issues of individual rights and community

benefits.
Allocation of Scarce Health Resources:
issues being faced
▪ Increased spending on health care
• Health status have not always improved
• Quality of care issues
▪ Health care administrators gear towards profitability
• When resources are limited (financial, technical and knowledge
resources) equitable and appropriate distribution is necessary.
▪ Evaluation for the fairness of allocation for scarce medical
resources
• On how people (general practitioners, medical students and
other health professionals) prioritize these resources
Allocation of Scarce Health Resources: principles
relevant for decision-making
▪ AUTONOMY: consideration for privacy, individual liberty, and
freedom of choice is usually focused on the individual. For
managers, and in public health, the right of privacy, and freedom
are recognized as long as they do not result in harm to others
▪ BENEFICENCE: is the overall goal of policy and practice. Usually
interpreted broadly in light of societal, population, or
organizational needs. This is profoundly different than the usual
concerns of providers who focus on the more narrow term of
rights of the individual.
Allocation of Scarce Health Resources: principles
relevant for decision-making
▪ Justice: equity in benefits is the core of public health. concern is focused
on equity among defined social groups.
o ideally requires health care organizations and health plans to provide to
individual recipients the care and services that each is due.
• Evaluate the fairness of ten allocation principles for scarce
medical resources:
o 1). ‘sickest first’, 2). ‘waiting list’, 3). ‘prognosis’, 4). ‘behavior’ (i.e., those who engage
in risky behavior should not be prioritized), 5). ‘instrumental value’ (e.g., health care
workers should be favored during epidemics), 6/7). ‘combination of criteria’ (i.e., a
sequence of the ‘youngest first’, ‘prognosis’, and ‘lottery’ principles), 8). ‘reciprocity’
(i.e., those who provided services to the society in the past should be rewarded), 9).
‘youngest first’, ‘lottery’, and 10). ‘monetary contribution’.
MANAGEMENT
OF PERSONAL
INFORMATION
PERSONAL INFORMATION
▪ information identifiable to any person, including, but not
limited to, information that relates to a person’s name, health,
finances, education, business, use or receipt of governmental
services or other activities, addresses, telephone numbers,
social security numbers, driver license numbers, other
identifying numbers, and any financial identifiers.
PERSONAL INFORMATION management
▪ Refers to both the practice and the study of the activities a
person performs in order to acquire or create, store,
organize, maintain, retrieve, use, and distribute the
information needed to complete tasks and fulfill various roles
and responsibilities.
PERSONAL INFORMATION management issues:
▪ As technology has developed, it has greatly increased the
potential for reliability, speed, efficiency, and usability of
medical records. However, this also increased the ability for
information to be misused, sold, and accessed without an
individual’s consent.
Principles related to PERSONAL INFORMATION:

▪ Stated in the nurses’ code of ethics.

• Autonomy includes the patient’s right to maintain control over
his life; this extends to the right to maintain control over personal
information (the right to privacy & confidentiality)
• Fidelity refers to one’s faithfulness to agreements that one has
accepted
 Ethical
consideration in
leadership &
management
 Principle of moral discernment
▪ MORAL DISCERNMENT
• the capacity to observe and make sense or meaning is central to
one’s ability to make ethical choices and to take moral action

▪ Principles are necessary for moral discernment

• Helps in interpreting important aspects of moral situations
• Points towards fulfilling ones duties (like keep secrets, tell the
truth)

(Gula, R. Moral Discernment)

 Using Principles for moral discernment
▪ Principles are absolute and do not allow any legitimate
exceptions, the only morally good act is to obey and refrain
the forbidden action.

▪ There are other principles that are generally applicable, but

not always so.
• Can be applied in most cases but there may be instances when
they conflict with another pressing obligation.
o Principle of autonomy (confidentiality) but may be breeched
(nonmaleficence) due to the demands of justice
(Gula, R. Moral Discernment)
BENEFICENCE
AUTONOMY
NURSE
FAMILY

PATIENT NONMALEFICENCE
BENEFICENCE
 Using Principles for moral discernment

▪The proper use of limited principles requires an

openness to the spirit as a source of empowerment
to distinguish subtle differences among otherwise
similar circumstances.
• If we tell the truth, we may not be saving someone from being
harmed; or if we save someone from harm, then we do not tell
the truth.

(Gula, R. Moral Discernment)

 Using Principles for decision-making
▪ Using principles to help in decision-making & avoiding errors and
counter the pull of subjectivism & relying on emotions alone.
▪ Principles are not the center of moral discernment
• Principles need to be interpreted and the situations to which
they must be applied.
o One sense of values and virtues affect the way one interpret
what is going on
• Influence what will be judged to be the right thing to do.

(Gula, R. Moral Discernment)

 NURSE
BENEFICENCE
AUTONOMY

NONMALEFICENCE
BENEFICENCE
Discernment
process
observe
1. Identify the problem
• Name the problem clearly
• Ask “where is the conflict?”
2. Acknowledge feelings
• “gut”reactions? Biases? Loyalties?
3. Gather the facts
• Issues to consider
a. Clinical factors (diagnosis, prognosis, certainty?)
b. Psycho-social factors (history, family situation?)
DELIBERATE
4. Consider alternatives
• Issues to consider
a. What are the alternative courses of action? All options should be seriously
considered before eliminating any.
b. What are the likely consequences? e.g. medical, quality of life, relationships,
legal, moral/spiritual
5. Examine Values
• Issues to consider
a. Preferences of the person receiving care: wishes, values, beliefs?
b. Are others’ values relevant?
c. What beliefs/values of the Christian community are relevant?
d. Which of the values are in conflict? What is the problem? Whose values
conflict? Economics involved?
DELIBERATE
6. Evaluate Alternatives
• Issues to consider
a. Identify the decision-maker(s)
b. Rank values.
c. Justify ranking. By what principles?
d. Evaluate the consequences of alternatives in terms of
principles.
e. What alternatives are excluded?
act
7. Articulate the Decision
• Issues to consider
a. Which alternative best reflects the ranking of values?
b. Which alternative best balances more of the values?
c. Have any other alternatives come to light?
8. Implement the Plan
• Issues to consider
a. How best to communicate the decision?
b. Who needs to know it?
c. How best to document the process?
d. Who needs to act?
 FOUR
PRINCIPLES OF
MORAL
DISCERNMENT/
1. Principle of Formal Cooperation- it occurs when someone intentionally
helps another person carry outa sinful act.
2. Principle of Material Cooperation - when a person's actions
unintentionally help another person do something wrong.
3. Principle of Lesser Evil - The principle that when faced with selecting from
two immoral options, the one which is least immoral should be chosen.
4. Principle of Double Effect - This principle aims to provide specific
guidelines for determining when it is morally permissible to perform an
action in pursuit of a good end in full knowledge that the action will also
bring about bad results.
Conscience - the act by which we apply to our own conduct our knowledge of
good and evil, whether our judgment be correct or incorrect.
Principle of
well-formed
conscience
Principle of well-formed conscience
▪ indicates that people are obligated to inform themselves
about ethical norms, incorporate that knowledge into their
daily lives, act according to that knowledge, and take
responsibility for those actions.
▪ applies to all our actions including those directed to health
care
• a dilemma in medical decisions: Who has the knowledge both of the
ethical norms and of the medical facts to make a responsible decision? And
how are these norms and facts to be related to each other? This dilemma
requires a discussion of the problem of developing a well-formed
conscience.
Principle of well-formed conscience
To attain the true goals of human life, all persons are morally
obliged in every free decision involving an ethical question to:
1. Inform themselves as adequately as possible about the relevant
facts and ethical norms.
2. Form a morally certain judgment of conscience on the basis of
this information.
3. Act according to this well-informed conscience.
4. Accept responsibility for their own actions.
Principle of well-formed conscience
Developing a well-formed conscience with prudent moral
discernment demands caution as to the possible harmful side
effects we foresee resulting from our good actions. Since it is not
possible to avoid all harmful side effects and at the same time to
fulfill our obligations to do the good from which they result, we
need a principle to guide us in such dilemmas.
Moral
decision-making
Strategies of moral decision making process

▪ Crisham (1985) developed a model for ethical decision

making incorporating the nursing process and principles of
biomedical ethics.

▪ This is a model especially useful in clarifying ethical problems

that result from conflicting obligations.
The MORAL Decision-Making Model
Massage the dilemma: Collect data about the ethical problem and
who should be involved in the decision-making process.
Outline options: Identify alternatives, and analyze the causes and
consequences of each.
Review criteria and resolve: Weigh the options against the values of
those involved in the decision. This may be done through a
weighting or grid.
Affirm position and act: Develop the implementation strategy.
Look back: Evaluate the decision making.
The MORAL Decision-Making strategies
▪ Mumford and colleagues consolidated the list of reasoning
strategies to a set of seven distinct cognitive reasoning
strategies
1. recognizing personal circumstances,
2. anticipating consequences,
3. considering others’ perspectives,
4. seeking help,
5. questioning your own judgment,
6. dealing with emotions, and
7. examining personal values.
Expanded definitions of cognitive reasoning
strategies relevant for ethical decision-making
Expanded definitions of cognitive reasoning
strategies relevant for ethical decision-making
 Ethical
dilemma
Ethical dilemma
▪ ethical paradox or moral
dilemma

▪ a problem in the
decision-making process
between two possible
options, neither of which is
absolutely acceptable from
an ethical perspective.
Ethical dilemma
▪ ethical dilemmas are extremely complicated challenges that
cannot be easily solved
• The ability to find the optimal solution in such situations is
critical to everyone
▪ The biggest challenge is that it does not offer an obvious
solution that would comply with ethical norms.
approaches to solve an ethical dilemma
▪ REFUTE THE PARADOX (dilemma): The situation must be
carefully analyzed. In some cases, the existence of the
dilemma can be logically refuted.
▪ VALUE THEORY APPROACH: Choose the alternative that
offers the greater good or the lesser evil.
▪ FIND ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS: In some cases, the
problem can be reconsidered, and new alternative
solutions may arise.
Bioethics
and
research
Nuremberg
Code
The experiments
During World War II, Nazi doctors
conducted as many as 30 different types
of experiments on Auschwitz
concentration-camp inmates. They
performed these studies without the
consent of the victims, who suffered
indescribable pain, mutilation, permanent
disability, or in many cases death as a
result.
The trial
When World War II ended in 1945, the
victorious Allied powers enacted the
International Military Tribunal on November
19th, 1945.
The first trial conducted under the Nuremberg
Military Tribunals in 1947 became known as
The Doctors’ Trial, in which 23 physicians from
the German Nazi Party were tried for crimes
against humanity for the atrocious experiments
they carried out on unwilling prisoners of war.
The verdict
Of the 23 defendants, 16 were found
guilty, of which seven received death
sentences and nine received prison
sentences ranging from 10 years to
life imprisonment. The other 7
defendants were acquitted.

The verdict also resulted in the

creation of the Nuremberg Code, a
set of ten ethical principles for human
experimentation.
Nuremberg code
1. Voluntary consent is essential
2. The results of any experiment must be for the greater good of
society
▪ The Nuremberg 3. Human experiments should be based on previous animal
Code aimed to experimentation
protect human 4. Experiments should be conducted by avoiding physical/mental
subjects from suffering and injury
enduring the kind of 5. No experiments should be conducted if it is believed to cause
cruelty and death/disability
exploitation the 6. The risks should never exceed the benefits
prisoners endured 7. Adequate facilities should be used to protect subjects
at concentration 8. Experiments should be conducted only by qualified scientists
camps. 9. Subjects should be able to end their participation at any time
10. The scientist in charge must be prepared to terminate the
experiment when injury, disability, or death is likely to occur
 The 10 elements of the
Nuremberg code
The Nuremberg Code aimed to protect human subjects from enduring the
kind of cruelty and exploitation the prisoners endured at concentration
camps.
1. Voluntary consent is essential
▪ This means that the person involved should have legal capacity to give
consent; should be so situated as to be able to exercise free power of
choice, without the intervention of any element of force, fraud, deceit,
duress, overreaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion;
▪ and should have sufficient knowledge and comprehension of the
elements of the subject matter involved as to enable him to make an
understanding and enlightened decision.

https://www.imarcresearch.com/blog/bid/359393/nuremberg-code-1947
cont. Ten Elements of Code
2. The experiment should be such as to yield fruitful
results for the good of society, unprocurable by other
methods or means of study, and not random and
unnecessary in nature.
3. The experiment should be so designed and based on
the results of animal experimentation and a
knowledge of the natural history of the disease or
other problem under study that the anticipated results will
justify the performance of the experiment.
4. The experiment should be so conducted as to avoid all
unnecessary physical and mental suffering and injury.
cont. Ten Elements of Code
5. No experiment should be conducted where there is a priori reason
to believe that death or disabling injury will occur; except, perhaps,
in those experiments where the experimental physicians also serve as
subjects.
6. The degree of risk to be taken should never exceed that determined
by the humanitarian importance of the problem to be solved by the
experiment.
7. Proper preparations should be made and adequate facilities
provided to protect the experimental subject against even remote
possibilities of injury, disability, or death.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199711133372006
 cont. Ten Elements of Code
8. The experiment should be conducted only by scientifically qualified
persons. The highest degree of skill and care should be required through
all stages of the experiment of those who conduct or engage in the
experiment.
9. The course of the experiment the human subject should be at liberty
to bring the experiment to an end if he has reached the physical or
mental state where continuation of the experiment seems to him to be
impossible.
10. The course of the experiment the scientist in charge must be
prepared to terminate the experiment at any stage, if he has probable
cause to believe, in the exercise of the good faith, superior skill, and
careful judgment required of him, that a continuation of the experiment is
likely to result in injury, disability, or death to the experimental subject.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199711133372006
Declaration of
Helsinki
What is the Declaration of Helsinki

▪ is a formal statement developed by the World Medical

Association that provides ethical guidelines that physicians
and other medical research participants should adhere to
when conducting research that uses human subjects.
• heavily influenced by the Nuremberg Code.
Development of Declaration of Helsinki

In 1948 the WMA’s Declaration of Geneva issued documents:

1. Outline of every physician’s ethical duties (which included

pledges to focus on the health of the patient) and,
2. Not to use medical knowledge to violate human rights.
Declaration of Helsinki
▪It must take into consideration the laws and regulations of
the country or countries in which the research is to be
performed as well as applicable international norms and
standards.

▪ The researcher must provide monitoring information to

the committee, especially information about any serious
adverse events.
Declaration of Helsinki
▪No amendment to the protocol may be made without
consideration and approval by the committee.

▪After the end of the study, the researchers must submit a

final report to the committee containing a summary of the
study’s findings and conclusions.
 Declaration of Helsinki - Ethico-principle and
Legalities
Privacy and Confidentiality
▪ Every precaution must be taken to
protect the privacy of research
subjects and the confidentiality of
their personal information.
Informed Consent
▪ Participation by individuals capable of ▪ each potential subject must be
giving informed consent as subjects in adequately informed of the aims,
medical research must be voluntary. methods, sources of funding, any
▪ no individual capable of giving possible conflicts of interest,
informed consent may be enrolled in a institutional affiliations of the
research study unless he or she freely researcher, the anticipated benefits
agrees. and potential risks of the study.
Belmont
report
 Belmont report
▪ a statement of basic ethical principles and guidelines that provide an
analytical framework to guide the resolution of ethical problems that
arise from research with human subjects
▪ created by the National Commission for the Protection of Human
Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research.
Belmont report
▪ one of the leading works
concerning ethics and health
care research. Its primary
purpose is to protect subjects
and participants in clinical trials
or research studies.
▪ This report consists of 3
principles: beneficence, justice,
and respect for persons.
Benefits &
challenges of
technology
 Current
technology
ISSUES & DILEMMA
Current technology
▪ The use technology to enhance their daily operations, be it
business, learning, construction, or therapeutic activities.
▪ Advancement in technology does not elicit ethical or moral
issues, but it is the use of technological inventions that raises
these issues.
1. Helix and DNA Tests
• A digital app store designed to help
you read your genome.
• Helix is an online platform hosting
deals and packages for DNA tests,
essentially trivializing your genetic
material into something of a party
game, or conversation starter.
o When did our genetic material last
affect how we made decisions in
everyday life?

John J. Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values at the University of Notre Dame
2. The Robot Priest
• BlessU-2 and Pepper are the first
robot priest and monk, respectively
• able to perform blessings in various
languages, challenging the traditions
of the traditional church with a human
priest.
• Examples of some of the ethical
questions being raised:
o If a couple is married by a robot
priest, will this be considered an
official, legal marriage?
o Does the robot priest have a
recording that saves all private
conversations?
John J. Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values at the University of Notre Dame
3. Emotion-Sensing Facial • ISSUES:
Recognition • Surveillance concerns- democratic
freedom, Data storage- privacy,
• Optimizing retail experiences by Finding missing people
assessing your reactions. (DeepFace) – (tagged in
• For medical use, it applies to dispense someone’s selfie) breaches the
medication based on facial scan right to a private life, medical
concerns- experiencing other
(biometric scanning). symptoms that indicate a
• Latest tech boasts of diagnostic differential diagnosis, or is even
capabilities – monitor BP or pain forced to acquire medication by
levels. someone else, diagnostic
capabilities can be misused.

John J. Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values at the University of Notre Dame
4. Ransomware
• Ransomware is like a virus. It allows hackers
to seize control of your computer or device
and lock you out, while threatening to steal
or delete your important files.
o seizes victim’s information, shut down
businesses and public utilities including
hospitals
o Feb. 5, 2016- Hollywood Presbyterian
Medical Center threatened to pay up or risk
a shutdown of its lifesaving equipment
5. The Textalyzer
• A new tool in the battle against texting
and driving that tells cops if you were on
your phone before an accident.
• It plugs into the driver’s cell phone and
retrieves a history of what they’ve been
up to. it includes exactly what apps you
were using at exactly what time
• A deliberate violation of an individual’s
autonomy
6. AI or “DEEP LEARNING”
▪ using algorithms to find patterns in employment
data and the results of games and tests to
determine the best candidates to fill their
positions.
▪ It employs neurological games or
emotion-sensing facial recognition as part of their
assessments
▪ Technology is not sophisticated enough to be
reliable or ethical
▪ Ethical questions:
• How much data is a company entitled to gather about
a potential worker?
7. SENTENCING SOFTWARE
▪ There are already Americans being
sentenced with the help of a mysterious
algorithm.
▪ COMPAS is a program sold by
Northpointe, Inc. and marketed as a
means to guide courts in their
sentencing.
8. PREDATORY JOURNALS
▪ lack ethical editorial practices
such as peer review and have
such low publishing standards
that they’ll publish just about
anything for a price.
▪ pose a danger to the integrity
and reliability of published
research and damage the
legitimacy of publishing
• they even list scholars on their
editorial board without their
permission in an effort to look
more legitimate
9. THE PSEUDOSCIENCE OF
SKINCARE
▪ “skin tech”
▪ Beauty devices such as LED masks, electronic face
scrubbers and microneedlers, facial massagers,
smart mirrors, skincare cameras, and handheld
machines that deliver a microcurrent to your skin
are just some of the at-home skin tech that people
are investing
▪ Fueled by concern over both premature aging and
skin diseases and, vanity.
▪ many of these devices have little or no reliable
scientific evidence to back them up
• skin tech devices use statements and practices
that scientists use but don’t follow the scientific
10. PROJECT NIGHTINGALE Ascension-one of the largest
private healthcare systems in
▪ Google developed a software to compile, store and the United States, ranking
search medical records and that both companies second in the United States by
number of hospitals
had signed a Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act (HIPAA) agreement, the goal–
Ascension was going to transfer the health records
to the Google Cloud.
▪ neither doctors nor patients had been informed of
what was happening with these records
• roughly 150 Google employees had access to the
data
▪ secure data can be hacked and anonymized data
can be de-anonymized.
 DOMINGO T. SO, JR.
NRG109 – +1 23 987 6554
BIOETHICS
[email protected]
SUMMER SY 2021-2022
www.contoso.com