• 제목/요약/키워드: Ethical Issues

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Genetic counseling in Korean health care system (유전상담의 제도적인 고찰)

  • Kim, Hyon-J.
    • Journal of Genetic Medicine
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    • v.4 no.1
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    • pp.1-5
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    • 2007
  • Unprecedented amount of genetic information being generated from the result of Human Genome Project (HGP) and advances in genetic research is already forcing changes in the paradigm of health and disease. The ultimate goal of genetic medicine is to use genetic information and technology to develop new ways of treatment or even prevention of the disease on an individual level for 'personalized medicine'. Genetics is play ing an increasingly important role in the diagnosis, monitoring and management of common multifactorial diseases in addition to rare single-gene disorders. While wide range of genetic testing have provided benefits to patients and family, uncertainties surrounding test interpretation, the current lack of available medical options for the diseases, and risks for discrimination and social stigmatization may remain to be resolved. However an increasing number of genetic tests are becoming commercially available, including direct to consumer genetic testing, yet public is often unaw are of their clinical and social implications. The personal nature of information generated by a genetic test, its power to affect major life decisions and family members, and its potential misuse raise important ethical considerations. Therefore appropriate genetic counseling is needed for patient to be informed with the benefits, limitations and risks of genetic tests, prior to informed consent for the tests. Physician also should be familiar with the legal and ethical issues involved in genetic testing to tell patients how w ell a particular genetic risk factor relates with likelihood of disease, and be able to provide appropriate genetic counseling. Genetic counseling become a mandatory requirement as global standard for many genetic testing such as prenatal diagnosis, presymtomatic DNA diagnostic tests and cancer susceptibility gene test for familial cancer syndrome. In oder to meet the challenge of genetic medicine of 21 century in korean health care system, professional education program and certification board for medical genetics specialist including non-MD genetic counselors should be addressed by medical society and regulatory policy of national health insurance reimbursement for genetic counseling to be in place to promote the implementation of clinical genetic service including genetic counseling for proper genetic testing.

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Panel Session toward Improved Communication and Engagement with the Public after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident: Study Reports and Discussion with Specialists from Relevant Fields

  • Yoshida, Hiroko;Kuroda, Yujiro;Kono, Takahiko;Naito, Wataru;Sakoda, Akihiro
    • Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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    • v.46 no.3
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    • pp.134-142
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    • 2021
  • Background: From 2018 to 2020, the Expert Study on Public Understanding after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident (the Expert Study Group) identified and analyzed activities designed to promote public understanding of science and radiation since the Fukushima accident, and held discussions on how to achieve public understanding in the situation where public confidence has been lost, and how experts should prepare for dealing with the public. This panel session was held at the 53rd meeting of the Japan Health Physics Society on June 30, 2020. Materials and Methods: First, three subgroup (SG) leaders reported their research methods and results. Then, two designated speakers, who participated as observers of the Expert Study Group, commented on the activities. Next, the five speakers held a panel discussion. Finally, the rapporteur summarized. Results and Discussion: SG leaders presented reports from researchers and practitioners in health physics and environmental risks who provided information after the Fukushima accident. During the discussion, experts in sociology and ethics discussed the issues, focusing on the overall goals of the three groups, local (personal) and mass communication, and ethical values. Many of the activities instituted by the experts after the accident were aimed at public understanding of science (that is, to provide knowledge to residents), but by taking into account interactions with residents and their ethical norms, the experts shifted to supporting the residents' decision-making through public engagement. The need to consider both content and channels is well known in the field of health communication, and overlaps with the above discussion. Conclusion: How to implement and promote the public engagement in society was discussed in both the floor and designated discussions. Cooperation between local communities and organizations that have already gained trust is also necessary in order to develop relationships with local residents in normal times, to establish an information transmission system, and to make it work effectively.

An Outline of Food Ethics (음식윤리 개요)

  • Kim, Suk-Shin
    • Food Science and Industry
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    • v.49 no.2
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    • pp.83-97
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    • 2016
  • This review was performed to outline the food ethics to the professionals in the field of food science and industries. Food ethics is the ethics or ethical consideration concerning food; while, the keywords of food ethics are a life, happiness and the wisdom. The ultimate goal as well as the first principle of food ethics is a sustainable living of human race. In order to reach the goal a coexistence of humans and nature, coexistence of humans and humans, and the fulfillment of essential requirements of a food are needed. The needs yield six categorical imperatives such as a respect for life, preservation of nature, distributive justice without deception or fakes, prior consideration of consumer, moderation and balance neither overs nor shorts, and the assurance of safety. The core principles corresponding to the categorical imperatives include a respect for life, environmental preservation, justice, priority of consumer, dynamic equilibrium, and the priority of safety. The core principles approach is a simple, clear, and practical method in solving ethical issues. The code of food ethics is also based on the core principles.

Research for the Security Studies in the Universities of U. S. A. (미국 대학 시큐리티 교육내용에 관한 연구 -한국 대학교육과 비교를 중심으로-)

  • Gong, Bae-Wan
    • Convergence Security Journal
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    • v.11 no.2
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    • pp.35-43
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    • 2011
  • In the universities of U.S.A., Criminal Justice is the interdisciplinary study of the institutions and policies that constitute the criminal justice system, as well as theories of human behavior and philosophies of justice related to the maintenance of social order, the control of crime, and the achievement of a just society. There are 103 American Universities have Criminal Justice department and they provide about 180 differents courses as a pre-requisition or optional subject in the major. The most 10 courses that those colleges adopted are Introduction to Criminal Justice, Criminal Law, Criminology, Criminal Procedures, Research Methods in Criminal Justice, Criminal Investigation, Juvenile Justice, Terrorism, Ethical Issues in Criminal Justice, Introduction to Psychology or Introduction to Sociology. Also, 10 fields more important in the major if we group together similar courses those are Criminal Justice and Procedures Sequences, Law, Justice and corrections, Theory and Methods Sequences, Homelend Security and Security Operations, Forensics and Cybercrime, Management and Administration, Police, Race and Ethnicity, General Requirements, Other Social Science Fields. The combined degree program leading to Bachelor of Arts Degree in Criminal Justice and Master in Public Administration provides a concentration in criminal justice, management, administration, and leadership. They have big different courses between USA and Korea event though they have similar educative goal and way of approach to the target in the major.

The Anticommons: BRCA Gene Patenting Controversy in the United States (유전자와 생명의 사유화, 그리고 반공유재의 비극: 미국의 BRCA 인간유전자 특허 논쟁)

  • Yi, Doogab
    • Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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    • v.12 no.1
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    • pp.1-43
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    • 2012
  • This paper examines the American Civil Liberties Union(ACLU)'s recent legal challenge on patents held by Myriad Genetics on two genes (BRCA1 and BRCA2) associated with a high risk of breast and ovarian cancer. Instead of analyzing the ACLU's objections to the BRCA patents in terms of its legal technicalities and normative ethical principles, this paper seeks to situate this legal case in the broader historical context of the shifting understanding of the relationship between private ownership, economic development, and the public interest in academic sciences. This paper first briefly chronicles a series of scientific developments and key legal decisions involving patenting of life forms, including genetically engineered micro-organisms animals and biological materials of human origins like cell cultures and genes, that led to the US Patent and Trademark Office(USPTO)'s official guidelines on human gene patenting in 2001. At another level, this paper analyzes the expansion of the scope of intellectual property rights in the life sciences in terms of shifting economic and legal assumptions about public knowledge and its role for economic development in the 1970s. I then show how these economic, legal, and ethical ideas that linked private ownership and the public interest have been challenged from the 1990s, calling for revisions in intellectual property laws regarding a wide array of life forms. The tragedy of the anticommons in human gene patenting, according to ACLU, has severely undermined creative scientific activities, medical innovations, access to health care and rights to life among cancer patient groups. ACLU's objection to human gene patenting on several US-constitutional grounds in turn suggests issues regarding intellectual property are critically linked to vital issues pertinent to the creative communities in arts and sciences, such as free exchange of ideas, censorship and monopoly, and free expression and piracy etc.

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Recent Interventional Procedures for Spinal Discogenic Pain for Life Care : Technical and Ethical Issues (라이프케어를 위한 추간판성 통증 치료의 최신중재기법 기술적 윤리적 문제들에 관하여)

  • Hong, Young-Ki
    • Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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    • v.13 no.4
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    • pp.311-320
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    • 2019
  • Discogenic pain which develops during the degenerative process of intervertebral disc is an intractable disease of musculoskeletal system. Unlike other diseases in modern medical science, it is not clinically confirmed through objective imaging and clinicopathologic index. Moreover, current technology has been facing difficulties finding fundamental treatment. This study examined through reviewing literature whether the therapeutic rationales of interventional procedures for the discogenic pain, such as nerve block, intradiscal electrothermal therapy and nucleoplasty, are valid and whether safety reviews such as preclinical tests are carried out faithfully during the technology development process. As a result, it is presumed that there is not yet an interventional treatment for discogenic pain, whose therapeutic rationale has been objectively verified. And there are some cases of interventional treatment that have not been adequately equipped with the preclinical test steps necessary to review the safety of the procedure during the technology development process. In conclusion, since there is still no interventional treatment for discogenic pain which has clear therapeutic rationale, it is necessary to recognize that a more careful approach is needed to judge whether the procedure is performed in clinical settings. And medical ethical issues may arise for some interventional treatment that are deemed to have been carried out without a thorough review of safety.

A Bioethical Study of the Informed Consent for Organ Donor (장기공여를 위한 사전동의의 생의윤리학적 고찰)

  • Um, Young-Rhan;Han, Sung-Suk
    • Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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    • v.4 no.2
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    • pp.475-487
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    • 1998
  • This is a study to search for the ethical basis for valid informed consent of organ donors. It is an admirable action that a person give his own body part or organ as a gift to another person. The organ for transplantation can be removed only when the donor consents voluntarily to donation. It is recently proposed as the need for organ transplantation is increased that organs can be harvested although the consent of deceased cannot be obtained. This may raise many moral issues because human beings all have an unalienable right to control their own bodies. The principle of autonomy is usually regarded as an ethical basis for informed consent. However, some people criticize that the principle of autonomy requires a person and his decision to be autonomous (but there are many patients who aren't autonomous due to their confusion or unconscious condition in a clinical situation). or this principle can foster indifference to patients needing help: thus respect for principles of care and beneficence is necessary. When we consider the complexity of making a decision about organ donation. the principle of autonomy should be replaced by the principle of respect for individual autonomy. as expressed by Childress (1990). This principle requires the care givers to respect the client's individual decisions. The elements of informed consent are threshold elements: competence to understand and decide. voluntariness in deciding: information elements: disclosure of material information. recommendation of a plan. understanding of disclosure and recommendation: and consent elements: decision in favor of a plan. authorization of the chosen plan. In cases of living donors. the elements of competence and voluntariness are more important than the others. So only an adult can give a recipient his own body part. but it should be forbidden to harvest from minors or protected adults (i.e. developmentally disabled person However. when organs are removed from a cadaver donor. we ought to respect the donor's decision. So we ought to try to seek donor cards or any documents expressing the donor's opinion about organ transplant. All health care givers ought to disclose donor information about organ transplantation clearly enough for the donor to understand it and to be able to weigh the harms and benefits. We are going to propose 'the subjective standard' as the ethical standard of disclosure. This standard will assure that patients have enough information to be able to decide autonomously from their own position. Care givers have to consider the method of disclosure because donors can be influenced by it positively or negatively, Establishment of the Hospital Committee is recommended. because medical professionals will have a chance to discuss the procedure of decision and the validity of harvesting a organ from a person.

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A Qualitative Study on the Mental Health Social Workers' Experiences Concerning Client's Self-determination (클라이언트의 자기결정에 관한 정신보건사회복지사의 실천 경험에 대한 연구)

  • Kim, Gi-duk;Jang, Eun-sook
    • Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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    • no.39
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    • pp.83-113
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    • 2008
  • The purpose of the study is to explore the mental health social workers' experiences concerning client's self-determination by grounded theory, one of the qualitative method. Although a lot of previous studies has proved that the practitioners have suffered from the ethical considerations in their practice, on which the matter of client's self-determination is centered, little attention is paid to deep exploration of practitioners' real experience about those aspects. To carry out the research question, first, through literature reviews focusing on clarify the underlying issues about client's self-determination, three intrinsic clues are found out; incompetence, medical benefits, the harm to the third party. Data obtained by in-depth interview with 10 participants are analyzed by employing the methode developed by Corbin and Strauss, which could categorize the raw data into several high-level concepts and constructs. The findings of the study show that most practitioners would consider the clients as the intrinsic subject of self-determination. Therefore, in practice, they are trying to support the client's self-determination even within the some constraints. In addition, they also experience the clients' latent potential in actualizing autonomy and self-determination, and identifies the positive effect of self-determination not only on the client's self-help and mental health but also on the practitioners themselves. The results of the study clearly suggests that it is critical to provide the practitioners with adequate ethical education and training to help them to overcome their ethical suffering concerning clients self-determination.

Research on the ethical implication of the principle of "Faithfulness" and "Benevolence" and application schemes in the ethics course of the elementary education - centering around the synthetic approach to the individual morality and the ethics of social community ('충서지도(忠恕之道)'의 윤리학적 함의와 초등 도덕과 교육에서의 적용 방안 연구 - 개인윤리와 사회공동체윤리의 통합적 접근을 중심으로 -)

  • Chi, Chun-Ho
    • (The)Study of the Eastern Classic
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    • no.34
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    • pp.311-338
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    • 2009
  • The moral corruption or the reality of absence of humanity derived from the development of science and society is very serious. Especially the moral education which should provide new breakthroughs facing such issue will be the initial concern in the educational world and the key point that judges our future. This study, as a part of efforts made for such demands of the times, is an attempt to approach the field of the present elementary education specifically by deducing the abundant meaning that the Confucianism's Chungseojidoh(忠恕之道: the principle of "Faithfulness" and "Benevolence") stands for. To build an ethical social community also means to draw voluntary moral practices into this society and this is possible with our (the moral subject) struggling the problems within but not remaining in the limitations of physical norms. Chungseojidoh as universal ethics contains a virtue ethical meaning as Jenlogy, a meaning of identity recognition and self-esteem inspiration, a meaning of social community ethics as ethics of good offices, etc. Such meanings, in particular, can be discussed more profoundly in terms of educational prevention from violence or cliquish issues in school that are largely related to education of humanity if 'applying schemes for elementary education' is seen as the center of the issue. And furthermore, they will be able to open a discussion over problems of the situation which the Korean society is in - especially the insistence, egoism or conflicts between social communities - can be answered in actuality.

Engineering Design and Philosophy of Technology (공학설계와 기술철학)

  • Son, Wha-Chul
    • Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
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    • no.94
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    • pp.107-136
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    • 2011
  • Throughout its short history, the discourses of philosophy of technology has been centered around two issues, namely the recovery of human autonomy in technological society and the pursuit of sustainable development. Following the basic subject matters of the discipline, this article suggests to examine the possibility of the 'ethical engineering design,' meaning that ethical consideration should be included in engineering design. This proposal is based on the critique that philosophy of technology has so far focused on the external approach to the problem of technology, neglecting the active role of engineers. By paying attention to engineering design, however, philosophy of technology can offer a more realistic solution for the problems of the technological society. The first section shows the context of the current discussion by surveying the brief history of philosophy of technology. The thesis of engineering design in philosophy of technology will be presented in the second section, together with supporting reasons. The third section will examine theories and efforts that raised the issue of engineering design in the past. They have been suggested in different contexts, but when put together, they can be used for the justification of the current proposal. The fourth section will deal with the possible critiques of this proposal, which will be followed by suggestions for engineers themselves.