Term paper on Issues in Bioethics

Section 1

In the chapter 13 Issues in Bioethics, I have found many interesting facts about reproductive technologies and enhancement of human traits. Rose Weitz states that it is possible “to improve human traits beyond the level generally considered normal rather than to treat conditions considered deviant or defective” (325). I know that many issues connected with reproductive technology lead to bioethical issues, because today technology can alter the assumptions that associated with existing systems reproductive and sexual morality and ethics. In addition, today many ethical issues connected with human enhancement arise in our society because reproductive technology has become a potential technology for both reproductively inhibited people and reproductively healthy people. Some examples of reproductive technology include artificial reproduction, artificial insemination, and even cloning. It has been found that serious ethical concerns are closely connected with the future possibility of harvesting human organs from clones. I know that many techniques in reproductive technology should be discussed in terms of ethics and morality, for example, xenotransplantation, the idea of growing human organs inside of pigs and cows and then transplanting them to humans.

Section 2

In the chapter 13 of the book The Sociology of Health, Illness, and Health Care: A Critical Approach, Rose Weitz discusses the history of bioethics and the major ethical issue associated with healthcare and biological sciences. Rose Weitz analyzes the role of bioethics in American healthcare system and medical research. The author of the book states that today bioethics is really the concern of a sociological understanding of healthcare system, human health and illnesses because bioethics examines “power differences between different social groups” (Weitz 317). She pays special attention to reproductive technology, the ethics medical interventions of enhancing human traits and some important issues raised by contemporary scientists about cloning.