Exploring Bioethics - NIH Office of Science Education - National ...

• apply important ethical considerations, such as respect for persons,minimizing harms while maximizing benefits, and fairness, in analyzingbioethical problems; and• recognize that while there can usually be several answers or approachesto an ethical question, it is important to present a strong, well-reasonedargument for one’s position.Major Concepts• Scientific breakthroughs and new biomedical technologies have broughtgreat benefits to millions of people, but they also raise difficult ethicalquestions about when and how they should be used.• The field of bioethics has developed concepts and skills for deciding whatthe best course of action is.• Scientific thinking and ethical thinking share similarities but are alsodifferent. In general, scientists aim to understand what is the case, whileethicists aim to determine what should be the case.• Bioethicists find four questions helpful: What is the ethical questionraised by this issue? What are the relevant facts? Who or what will beaffected by how the question is resolved? What are the relevant ethicalconsiderations?• Carefully considered ethical judgments usually take at least three coreethical considerations into account: respect for persons, minimizing harmswhile maximizing benefits, and fairness. There are often other importantconsiderations as well, such as authenticity.Assessment OutcomeStudents will use the four key questions and core ethical considerations introducedin this module to analyze an ethical case about enhancement in sports.They will give sound reasons for their judgments.1234Key Science Knowledge*• Nature of science (empiricism)• Steroids and hormones*Bold items are explicitly addressed in this module.5Module 1 1-36