Medical Ethics

This lecture is to comment briefly on historical reviews and meanings of bioethics, that has newly been developed during last twenty years or so in the United States of America. According to Encyclopedia of Bioethics (1978), bioethics is a composite term derived from Greek words bio (life) and ethike (ethics). It can be defined as the systematic study of human conduct in the area of the life sciences and health care, insofar as this conduct is examined in the light of moral values and principles. Bioethics is an area of interdisciplinary studies whose focus depends on the kinds of issues it examines and the nature of ethical inquiry. One of the most important principles in bioethics is the informed consent which stemmed from ethical principles listed in Neurenberg Code of Ethics (1947) and developed as the legal principles at the courts in U.S.A. The principles of bioethics will be changed following the changes occurring in availability of advanced medical treatments by which some diseases that used to be lethal may well be cured. Thus, bioethics is different from the immutable ethics