Bioethical Issues and Trends

Ethical issues in health care draw some attention leading to moral distress, unproductivity, reduced professional care and conflict. Ethical issues arising in healthcare may require thoughtful moral questions which require the professionals to make decisions of "right" or "wrong" depending on the care that patients may require (Fung et al. Moreover, the demographic, scientific, social, as well as technological aspects of medical care, has triggered the complexity in handling the ethical issues. Despite some challenges, bioethics is beneficial not only to the patient but also to the family members and the society. Bioethics can be regarded as a multidisciplinary field that involves theology, history, philosophy, medicine, medical humanities, and health policies. Both end-of-life choices and medical decision have multifaceted psychosocial components, consequences, and ramifications which has an effect on suffering, living or dying.

This is because some patients and family members have believed that contrast physician decisions. Different cultures might be against the end of life care, and they decide to follow the patient’s wish whereby they will not discuss death. Under this circumstance, the end-of-life care may not be effective. Eugenics Due to the improvement in technology, people can advance genetic quality by gene manipulation, gene selection, and selective reproduction. Additionally, the genes might multiply, and instead of excluding the genetic disorder, there is the creation of human with same genetic makeup. This cause a severe disorder than the one existing. Euthanasia This refers to a deliberate act of terminating an individual’s life to relieve pain. Euthanasia can be either voluntary or involuntary.

Involuntary cases, the individuals decide to be helped in terminating his/her life while in involuntary cases, the patient may be in a coma and another person make a decision on his/her behalf. This can happen if the patient has a lot of wealth and the family members or relatives want to inherit the properties. The inequity of medical resources Healthcare allocation is classified into micro-allocation and macro allocation. Micro-allocation involves making a selection on the patient who needs a certain scarce resource and who does not. Also, it entails deciding on which patient should get the treatment especially when the time is limited. Macro allocation involves those resources that are located by the government on particular health care. The donor can be either a deceased or a living person.

Other organs are even obtained from animals. Some of the organs that require to be transplanted include liver, pancreas, heart, lungs kidney among others. Currently, there have been several incidences of peoples experiencing organ failure which have resulted in organ demand. Patients have been spending more time waiting to get other organs that can suit their body, but they end up losing their lives. It can also help the physicians to identify diseases and their treatments. The significant disadvantages of the organ transplant are the increase in health risks for the donors. The risks can be surgical errors, infection or death. People tend to fear the possible complications that are associated with organ donations. Also, the organ might fail to function on the recipient's body.

It can help to undo the mistakes and enable the parents to raise the young children. Other circumstances can be when the child is not needed in the family. The unwanted pregnancy can result in a large number of children that parents cannot be able to raise. The parents may decide to terminate the pregnancy to avoid the financial strains. Additionally, a pregnancy that occurs due to rape or defilement is a challenge to the mother or the child. Furthermore, abortion can lead to either medical complications like sepsis, infection and recurrent miscarriage or psychological impairments like guiltiness and depression. Cloning This refers to the process of producing an identical copy of either a cell or an organism that have genetic characteristics as the original one.

There are different types of artificial cloning which include reproductive cloning, gene cloning, and therapeutic cloning. Gene cloning generates either some copies of genes or DNA segments. Therapeutic cloning generates an embryonic stem cell that is used in the experiments. Through cloning, it is possible to have the child back. Even the family can bring back their members who have already died and who have a high impact on their lives. This can ensure that the families are balanced. Cloning can lead to discrimination. Currently, people are divided depending on the language they speak, the race, the richness among others. Stem cell research The stem cell has the potential of evolving into various cells during the early stage of life. Tissues commonly function as an internal repair system.

Whenever the stem cells fragment, every cell is capable of remaining as the stem cell or develop into a different cell that has the more specialized role such as the red blood cells, muscle cells, and brain cells. The stem cell is distinguishable from other cells since they are formed through cell division. Also under some physiologic condition, they can develop into tissues. The process reduces the necessity for immunosuppressant treatments that are required for better quality of life. There is also a possibility of converting some of the stem cells into pluripotent stem cells. The process enables the activation of pluripotent stem cells into endoderm, mesoderm or ectoderm. This is essential since the embryonic stem cell lines can offer medical treatments while the embryo remains intact.

Currently, the treatment options for the stem cells are many. Although stem cell research is beneficial, there is a possibility of the embryonic stem cell to have an increased rejection rate. According to Fung et al. (2017), therapies triggers the formation of tumors. A few embryonic stem cells do not function as intended. Also getting the stem cell is a challenging process. In this situation, the individuals are required to express their will or their desire concerning their medical care. When the individuals are unable to consent to health care, the physicians follow the patient choice contained in the advanced medical derivatives. Medical derivatives are essential in that they enable the family members to be at peace. It prevents the confusion or tension that can occur when the patient has not made a decision.