Science Based Bioethics: A Scientific Approach to Bioethical Decision Making by John D. Loike

Every new scientific advancement and discovery generates a plethora of ethical questions and dilemmas. This book proposes that bioethics itself is an amalgam of many different disciplines and skills that must include the understanding and analysis of the scientific principles underlying new biotechnologies. Only once the scientific principles are understood, can other bioethical approaches incorporating philosophy, social values, culture, and religion be integrated with the scientific facts to attempt to resolve these complex, and often contentious, moral issues. Bioethics and science should exist in a mutually beneficial and symbiotic relationship motivated by a common goal to acquire knowledge purely for its own sake and for its potential for needed therapeutic applications. This is the new mission in bioethics: to provide integrated, multidisciplinary analysis to enable our future scientists, health care providers, lawyers, and politicians to manage and resolve the many significant emerging bioethical issues.