The growth of scientific knowledge and technical ability in medicine and the biological sciences has led to a number of ethical dilemmas which perplex all of us, but especially those in the health care field. Does the fact that we can prolong the life of a patient in a permanent vegetative state mean that we should do so? Is embryonic stem cell research justified by the prospect it offers of alleviating serious diseases? Should more medical resources go into intensive care for extremely premature infants, given the cost of such treatment and its mixed outcome? Should scientists proceed with research trying to clone human beings?
At the Centre for Human Bioethics we believe that our ethical thinking can catch up and keep pace with advances in biomedical technology if we have the necessary resources to do so. We can also anticipate future developments and assess what we might do if and when those developments become a reality.
