ETHICS IN BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING BY RYAN IVONE

INTRODUCTION Goal : Use their knowledge, skills, and abilities to enhance the safety, health, and welfare of the public Major advancements – artificial organs, bioengineered skin, genetic engineering, etc. Used for the purposes of rehabilitation, giving patients their lives back

TAKING A STEP BACK Used for the right reasons, no doubt helpful to society Future – using this technology for the wrong reasons Rehabilitation vs human enhancement Returning to normal state vs going beyond normal state Is it ethical?

Vs.

GENETIC ENGINEERING Germline engineering – Modifying genes in eggs, sperm, and embryos Leads to inheritable modifications of the genome that are passed on to future generations “Playing God” Enhancing human traits (intelligence, strength, etc)

GERMLINE ENGINEERING PROS Preventing undesired genes from appearing in children Enhance certain characteristics of offspring CONS Creating the “perfect” person (reshape society) Where does responsibility fall if problems arise

TISSUE ENGINEERING Field that aims to restore functioning of tissue or whole organs Use of human embryonic tissue (stem cells) Controversial – cells are harvested from human embryos, which are destroyed in the process Worry of large scale cultivation of human embryos specifically for this purpose

PROSTHESES/IMPLANTS Use synthetic material to create artificial limbs Interface with biological systems Rehabilitation engineering - developing technological solutions for problems of people with disabilities and function impairments

PROSTHESES/IMPLANTS Ethical – part human, part machine Involves use of addition of artificial structures and systems to human biology Cybercrime – hacking devices using Bluetooth (lethal dose insulin to diabetics) Raises questions – Should certain organs not be replaced by artificial systems? (loss of identity) In the future, will people want to replace healthy organs/limbs for better artificial versions?

IMAGING AND OPTICS Application of engineering methods to detect and visualize biological processes Obvious benefits – early detection diseases Diagnostic imaging concerns Diseases may be revealed that were not under investigation or for which no therapy is available Conditions may become visible that indicate an increased probability to develop a disease

IMAGING AND OPTICS Raises question: Would you want to know how much time you have left to live? Ethical – data manipulation of imaging Images are expected to be truthful and reliable Some imaging operations necessary (brightness and contrast) What imaging operations are permissible? How much of this information needs to be disclosed?

NEURAL ENGINEERING Goal - study and manipulate the central or peripheral nervous systems Restoration and augmentation of human function Neuralprosthetics - neural prostheses are developed to replace/improve neural function of an impaired nervous system Brain-computer interfaces - external computing devices hooked up to the brain, signals can be exchanged

NEURAL ENGINEERING Ethical concerns - Integrity/dignity of person – affect personal identity Making human brain partially artificial – humans into cyborg Individual autonomy undermined Neural device control cognition, mood, behavior, etc. Moral responsibility Can humans still be held responsible despite having artificial influence? Neuroenhancement – Should devices be used to allow humans to have superior perception, cognition/motor control, or positive moods/attitudes

RECAP Advances in biomedical engineering are no doubt helpful to many people around the world Fine line between rehabilitation and enhancement Need to keep in mind these ethical concerns as engineers Responsibility to: Act in the best interest of society Remain honest (free of conflict of interest, bribery, etc.)

ANY QUESTIONS