

<head> Tipster Topic Description


<num> Number: 126


<dom> Domain: Medical & Biological 


<title> Topic: Medical Ethics and Modern Technology


<desc> Description:

Document will discuss ethical issues attendant to contemporary advances in 
medical technology.


<smry> Summary:

Document will discuss ethical issues attendant to contemporary advances in 
medical technology.


<narr> Narrative:

A relevant document will report on non-traditional medical ethics issues 
which have been created by recent (post WWII) advances in medical science 
and/or the efforts of the medical community to deal with such ethical issues.
Relevant reports include those on such issues as the decision process for 
selecting organ transplant recipients, whether to place or remove a patient 
from a life-support machine ("when to pull the plug"), whether or not to 
employ advanced techniques on defective newborns, and the use of fetal 
tissue and human cells in biomedical research.  NOT relevant are reports on 
such traditional issues as abortion, mercy killing, and assisted suicide.  
Also NOT relevant are reports on the long-established legal/ethical issue of 
the right to privacy, as it relates to such contemporary public health 
problems as mandatory testing and contact tracing for AIDS.


<con> Concept(s):

1. medical ethics

2. hospital ethicist, medical ethics counseling

3. triage, terminally ill, abortion, assisted suicide

4. fetal tissue, organ transplant, life support machine, artificial 
insemination 


<fac> Factor(s):


<def> Definition(s):