Medical Metaphors Matter: Experiments Can Determine the Impact of Metaphors on Bioethical Issues

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. 18-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Hauser ◽  
Norbert Schwarz
Keyword(s):  
Bioethical Issues ◽  
Medical Metaphors ◽  
The Impact

scholarly journals Lessons Learned from Undergraduate Students in Designing a Science-Based Course in Bioethics

2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 701-710 ◽  
Author(s):  
John D. Loike ◽  
Brittany S. Rush ◽  
Adam Schweber ◽  
Ruth L. Fischbach
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Professional Lives ◽  
Columbia University ◽  
Problem Solving Skills ◽  
Health Studies ◽  
Bioethical Issues ◽  
Undergraduate Science ◽  
The Impact

Columbia University offers two innovative undergraduate science-based bioethics courses for student majoring in biosciences and pre–health studies. The goals of these courses are to introduce future scientists and healthcare professionals to the ethical questions they will confront in their professional lives, thus enabling them to strategically address these bioethical dilemmas. These courses incorporate innovative pedagogical methods, case studies, and class discussions to stimulate the students to think creatively about bioethical issues emerging from new biotechnologies. At the end of each course, each student is required to submit a one-page strategy detailing how he or she would resolve a bioethical dilemma. Based on our experience in teaching these courses and on a qualitative analysis of the students’ reflections, we offer recommendations for creating an undergraduate science-based course in bioethics. General recommendations include: 1) integrating the science of emerging biotechnologies, their ethical ramifications, and contemporary bioethical theories into interactive class sessions; 2) structuring discussion-based classes to stimulate students to consider the impact of their moral intuitions when grappling with bioethical issues; and 3) using specific actual and futuristic case studies to highlight bioethical issues and to help develop creative problem-solving skills. Such a course sparks students’ interests in both science and ethics and helps them analyze bioethical challenges arising from emerging biotechnologies.

scholarly journals Postponing Pregnancy Through Oocyte Cryopreservation for Social Reasons: Considerations Regarding Clinical Practice and the Socio-Psychological and Bioethical Issues Involved

Medicina ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (5) ◽  
pp. 76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mara Simopoulou ◽  
Konstantinos Sfakianoudis ◽  
Panagiotis Bakas ◽  
Polina Giannelou ◽  
Christina Papapetrou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Age ◽  
Future Expectations ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Bioethical Issues ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Complex Matter ◽  
Oocyte Freezing

Oocyte freezing for ‘social reasons’ refers to women of reproductive age who are aiming to prolong, protect and secure their fertility. The term emerged to describe application of the highly promising technique, namely vitrification on oocytes retrieved through controlled ovarian stimulation (COS) from women intending to preserve their fertility for social reasons. These women opt to cryopreserve their oocytes at a point in their life when they need to postpone childbearing on the grounds of so called ‘social’ reasons. These reasons may include a highly driven career, absence of an adequate partner, financial instability, or personal reasons that make them feel unprepared for motherhood. This is a sensitive and multifaceted issue that entails medical, bioethical and socio-psychological components. The latest trend and the apparent increase noted on oocyte freezing for ‘social reasons’ has prompted our team of fertility specialists, embryologists, obstetricians, gynecologists and psychologists to proceed with a thorough, critical and all-inclusive comprehensive analysis. The wide range of findings of this analysis involve concerns of embryology and epigenetics that shape decisions made in the IVF laboratory, issues regarding obstetric and perinatal concerns on the pregnancy concluding from these oocytes and the respective delivery management and neonatal data, to the social and bioethical impact of this trend’s application. This literature review refers to matters rising from the moment the ‘idea’ of this option is ‘birthed’ in a woman’s thoughts, to proceeding and executing it clinically, up until the point of the pediatric follow up of the children born. We aim to shed light to the controversial issue of oocyte freezing, while objectively exhibit all aspects regarding this complex matter, as well as to respectfully approach how could the prospect of our future expectations be shaped from the impact of its application.

scholarly journals Bioethics for Biotechnologists: From Dolly to CRISPR

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Caballero-Hernandez ◽  
C. Rodríguez-Padilla ◽  
S. Lozano-Muñiz
Keyword(s):  
Technological Advance ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Past ◽  
Moral Importance ◽  
Future Society ◽  
Bioethical Issues ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Modern Era ◽  
Important Shift

AbstractBioethics, as a discipline, has developed mainly, but not exclusively, around themes of moral importance for the medical practice, such as abortion and euthanasia, a never ending discussion that has been shaped by social mores and influenced by scientific and technological advance. However, in the past 20 years an important shift has been taking place, one where bioethical issues and their discussion are starting to being driven by the so-called emerging biotechnologies, from cloning to genome sequencing and editing. If Bioethics is concerned with human beings, and their interaction with other living beings and the environment, it makes sense for Biotechnology, by definition the use of living systems or organisms to develop products, to become an important, if not the most important, source of bioethical conflicts in modern era and for future society. As Biotechnology keeps expanding and becomes entangled in everyday life, so does the need for ethical competent biotechnologists, with competencies built not only on ethical principles but also on a realistic grasp of the impact these technologies could have on human society and the world we inhabit.

The Iranian Embryo Donation Law and Surrogacy Regulations: The Intersection of Religion, Law and Ethics

2015 ◽  
Vol 55 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 348-377
Author(s):  
Shirin Garmaroudi Naef
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Reproductive Technologies ◽  
National Context ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Embryo Donation ◽  
Law And Ethics ◽  
Bioethical Issues ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Secular State

This article examines the Iranian approach to the regulation of reproductive technologies, through which medical, Islamic juridical and civil legal authorities come together in forming bioethical legislation and regulations in the national context. It focuses in particular on the legislation and regulations for embryo donation and surrogacy arrangements, both morally permissible according to the majority of Shiʿi religious authorities. It traces the development of these legislations and which institutions and actors were involved, and examines in particular the dynamics of religion, law, and medicine in the formation of these bioethical regulations. I argue that the Iranian approach towards bioethical issues involves all stakeholders – religious and secular, state and private – and reflects a combination of elements from both secular and religious principles. This approach (bottom-up rather than top-down), I conclude, reflects the efforts and ability of Iranian scholars to examine the impact and challenges of global modern biomedicine and thereby give internal answers within their own religious and cultural values and tradition.


Formation of Lunar Craters and Bright Rays as a Result of Meteorite Impacts

1962 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 415-418
Author(s):  
K. P. Stanyukovich ◽  
V. A. Bronshten
Keyword(s):  
Explosive Charge ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Meteorite Impacts ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Lunar Craters ◽  
The Impact

The phenomena accompanying the impact of large meteorites on the surface of the Moon or of the Earth can be examined on the basis of the theory of explosive phenomena if we assume that, instead of an exploding meteorite moving inside the rock, we have an explosive charge (equivalent in energy), situated at a certain distance under the surface.

The Geosciences Applied to Lunar Exploration

1962 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 169-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Green
Keyword(s):  
Lunar Surface ◽  
Probable Mechanism ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Lunar Exploration ◽  
Geological Model ◽  
Apply Geophysics ◽  
Surface Features ◽  
The Impact

The term geo-sciences has been used here to include the disciplines geology, geophysics and geochemistry. However, in order to apply geophysics and geochemistry effectively one must begin with a geological model. Therefore, the science of geology should be used as the basis for lunar exploration. From an astronomical point of view, a lunar terrain heavily impacted with meteors appears the more reasonable; although from a geological standpoint, volcanism seems the more probable mechanism. A surface liberally marked with volcanic features has been advocated by such geologists as Bülow, Dana, Suess, von Wolff, Shaler, Spurr, and Kuno. In this paper, both the impact and volcanic hypotheses are considered in the application of the geo-sciences to manned lunar exploration. However, more emphasis is placed on the volcanic, or more correctly the defluidization, hypothesis to account for lunar surface features.

Asteroid and Comet Impact Speeds upon Mars: Significance for Panspermia and the Supply of Organics

1997 ◽  
Vol 161 ◽  
pp. 197-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duncan Steel
Keyword(s):  
Probability Distributions ◽  
Regions Of Interest ◽  
Significant Fraction ◽  
Organic Chemicals ◽  
Impact Speed ◽  
The Mean ◽  
The Impact

AbstractWhilst lithopanspermia depends upon massive impacts occurring at a speed above some limit, the intact delivery of organic chemicals or other volatiles to a planet requires the impact speed to be below some other limit such that a significant fraction of that material escapes destruction. Thus the two opposite ends of the impact speed distributions are the regions of interest in the bioastronomical context, whereas much modelling work on impacts delivers, or makes use of, only the mean speed. Here the probability distributions of impact speeds upon Mars are calculated for (i) the orbital distribution of known asteroids; and (ii) the expected distribution of near-parabolic cometary orbits. It is found that cometary impacts are far more likely to eject rocks from Mars (over 99 percent of the cometary impacts are at speeds above 20 km/sec, but at most 5 percent of the asteroidal impacts); paradoxically, the objects impacting at speeds low enough to make organic/volatile survival possible (the asteroids) are those which are depleted in such species.

Organic Syntheses During the Impact of a Comet with a Gaseous Planet

1997 ◽  
Vol 161 ◽  
pp. 189-195
Author(s):  
Cesare Guaita ◽  
Roberto Crippa ◽  
Federico Manzini
Keyword(s):  
Polymeric Material ◽  
Molecular Form ◽  
Parent Compound ◽  
Blue Filter ◽  
Organic Syntheses ◽  
The Impact

AbstractA large amount of CO has been detected above many SL9/Jupiter impacts. This gas was never detected before the collision. So, in our opinion, CO was released from a parent compound during the collision. We identify this compound as POM (polyoxymethylene), a formaldehyde (HCHO) polymer that, when suddenly heated, reformes monomeric HCHO. At temperatures higher than 1200°K HCHO cannot exist in molecular form and the most probable result of its decomposition is the formation of CO. At lower temperatures, HCHO can react with NH3 and/or HCN to form high UV-absorbing polymeric material. In our opinion, this kind of material has also to be taken in to account to explain the complex evolution of some SL9 impacts that we observed in CCD images taken with a blue filter.

Hydrogen Cyanide Polymers from the Impact of Comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 on Jupiter

1997 ◽  
Vol 161 ◽  
pp. 179-187
Author(s):  
Clifford N. Matthews ◽  
Rose A. Pesce-Rodriguez ◽  
Shirley A. Liebman
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Solar System ◽  
Hydrogen Cyanide ◽  
Nitrogen Heterocycles ◽  
Laboratory Studies ◽  
Heterogeneous Solids ◽  
The Many ◽  
Comet Halley ◽  
The Impact ◽  
By Products

AbstractHydrogen cyanide polymers – heterogeneous solids ranging in color from yellow to orange to brown to black – may be among the organic macromolecules most readily formed within the Solar System. The non-volatile black crust of comet Halley, for example, as well as the extensive orangebrown streaks in the atmosphere of Jupiter, might consist largely of such polymers synthesized from HCN formed by photolysis of methane and ammonia, the color observed depending on the concentration of HCN involved. Laboratory studies of these ubiquitous compounds point to the presence of polyamidine structures synthesized directly from hydrogen cyanide. These would be converted by water to polypeptides which can be further hydrolyzed to α-amino acids. Black polymers and multimers with conjugated ladder structures derived from HCN could also be formed and might well be the source of the many nitrogen heterocycles, adenine included, observed after pyrolysis. The dark brown color arising from the impacts of comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 on Jupiter might therefore be mainly caused by the presence of HCN polymers, whether originally present, deposited by the impactor or synthesized directly from HCN. Spectroscopic detection of these predicted macromolecules and their hydrolytic and pyrolytic by-products would strengthen significantly the hypothesis that cyanide polymerization is a preferred pathway for prebiotic and extraterrestrial chemistry.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document