مجله ایرانی اخلاق و تاریخ پزشکی
سال شانزدهم شماره 1 (بهار 1402)

Emerging biotechnologies contribute significantly to societal well-being by influencing social, economic, and health fields. Attitudes toward biotechnologies differ, in various situations and over time, based on new understanding and evidence. One issue always emphasized in the ethical evaluation of emerging technologies is their dangerous and problematic aspects for human life and well-being. Simultaneously, ethical assumptions can influence ethical decision-making toward employing these technologies, including liberty, technological optimism, determinism, the lifecycle, power, the form of life, technology neutrality, ambiguity, uncertainty, dual-use transformative potential, and the challenges that will be raised by them. For the ethical assessment of emerging technology, six principal methodologies are employed. The "principles-based approach" focuses on obtaining the intended goals rather than determining specific requirements, laws, standards, and obligations and avoids checklist design. The ethical principles raised by the principles-based approach are presented in this article, including risk-cost-benefit, adherence to individual rights, sustainability, naturalness, precautionary, trajectory, responsible stewardship, public beneficence, justice and fairness, democratic deliberation, and intellectual freedom.Finally, by presenting a conceptual model in applying the principles above in forming biotechnologies, eighteen operational recommendations are presented to facilitate the ethical evaluation and monitoring of emerging biotechnologies in the policy-making process in Iran.

One of the most important patient rights is to respect the patients’ autonomy and their participation in the process of treatment decision-making. This is of particular importance for the patients in the emergency department, who require due care in differential diagnosis leading to illness and death. However, the problem arises when this right is negligently ignored and despite the fact that it seems a simple matter, it is difficult to manage and control. Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate this issue through the case report of a patient diagnosed with acute abdomen. Moreover, an attempt was made to briefly review how negligence occurs, its causes and consequences, as well as its management strategies. In this report, the results highlighted the importance of patient participation, obtaining informed consent from the patient in the entire treatment process (diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, and prevention), and maintaining privacy and confidentiality regarding all medical and non-medical information of patients that are provided to the treatment staff in verbal, written, partial, and even electronic forms, especially in sensitive and stigmatizing cases. It seems that there are certain strategies to manage such negligence including timely detection, investigation of the causes and consequences, compensation for the damage, enhancing the cultural competence of the treatment staff, developing relevant local guidelines and instructions, having an efficient system with the support of the organization for handling it, and strengthening communication skills and teamwork.

Scientists now believe that precision medicine, which employs complicated technology and information derived from omics, can treat complex diseases and provide justice in health. Implementation of precision medicine will face new ethical challenges, considering the principles of medical ethics. With respect to philosophical principles, this study addressed the issue of justice and some ethical challenges of precision medicine. Because, in order to gain the benefits of precision medicine, a proper ethical framework must be developed while considering the challenges. The manner in which precision medicine information is shared and accessed can have an impact on people’s future careers, marriage choices, and type of health insurance. Furthermore, preserving people’s privacy and autonomy are important ethical concerns in precision medicine since there will be no perfect guarantee about data security and access. Although in the short and medium term, due to the design of studies and expensive and complex technologies, precision medicine will be limited to certain groups and will intensify the inequality in justice, in the long run, with the easy access and inexpensive cost of precision medicine technologies, the accumulation of medical expenses will decrease throughout life, and justice will be established between and within countries.

Malaria is one of the most common infectious diseases, the growth and prevalence of which depends on the environmental and climatic conditions of each region. The Pahlavi government took measures to prevent the spread of this disease in order to ensure public health in the society. In 1334 to 1347A.H, the seventh province of Fars, which included a large part of the coastal and post-coastal areas of the Persian Gulf, was considered one of the vulnerable areas to this disease due to its geographical location. Therefore, the main goal of this research is to investigate and analyze the actions of the Pahlavi government to control and prevent the spread of malaria in Fars province during the years 1334 to 1347A.H. The research method in this article is descriptive-analytical and data collection was done by referring to historical first-hand sources and unpublished local (Persian) documents. The findings of the research show that the Pahlavi government, within the framework of the second and third seven-year construction plans, has implemented solutions to treat and eradicate this disease, such as spraying operations, sending health teams, allocating special funds and implementing programs. He did training for this purpose. Statistical analysis shows that these measures were relatively successful and effective in preventing the spread and control of malaria in Fars. However, the implementation of this plan in Fars was not without challenges.

Drug title is one of the important tools for recognizing and evaluating a combination drug and also analyzing its content. However, sometimes due to the existence of problems that is considered a kind of pathology in this field, is tarnished. The present study tries to identify the problems of nomenclature of compounded drugs. The names of combination drugs available in this research have been collected from three books in traditional pharmacy, namely Gharabadin-e-Salehi, Gharabadin-e- Kabeer, and Gharabadin-e- Azam, related to 18th and 19th centuries. The results showed that there are 5 major problems in nomenclature of compounded drugs: (1) several names for one drug with various formulations, (2) one name for drugs with various formulations, (3) a great deal of variation in unnamed drugs, (4) some unknown pharmaceutical dosage forms, and (5) being dosage forms at one with route of administration and mechanism of action. The study exposes combination drugs in Persian medicine have named concerning various patterns. For this reason, there is non-cooperation that feels a need to special investigation

The prevalence of academic cheating in educational centers and institutions leads to inefficiency and incapacity of graduates. Accordingly, the current study aimed to design a structural model for academic cheating in medical students based on moral metacognition, moral identity, and moral potency. This correlational study was done using structural equation modeling. The statistical population of the study included the students of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences in 2022, and 350 students were selected for the study using simple random sampling method. Data were collected through the Academic Cheating Scale (ACS) (Parks-Leduc, Guay and Mulligan, 2022), Moral Metacognition Scale (McMahon and Good, 2016), Moral Identity Questionnaire (MIQ) (Black & Reynolds, 2016), and Moral Potency Questionnaire (Hannah and Avolio, 2010). Data were analyzed using Bootstrap, Sobel, and Pearson’s correlation coefficient tests via SPSS and AMOS, version 24. The results indicated that the direct effect of moral potency (-0.34), moral identity (-0.25), and moral metacognition (-0.29) was significant on estimating academic cheating in students. The indirect effect of moral identity (-1.97) and moral metacognition (-2.06) with the mediating role of moral potency on students’ academic cheating was significant. Considering the mediating effect of moral potency in the academic cheating model, it seems that moral potency plays a role in increasing the effects of moral metacognition and moral identity on reducing academic cheating.