Vulnerability is an important criterion to assess the ethical justification of the inclusion of participants in research trials. Currently, vulnerability is often understood as an attribute inherent to a participant by nature of a diagnosed condition. Accordingly, a common ethical concern relates to the participant's decisionmaking capacity and ability to provide free and informed consent. We p...

DNA fingerprinting is a powerful technology that has revolutionized forensic science. No two individuals can have an identical DNA pattern except identical twins. Such DNA-based technologies have enormous social implications and can help in the fight against crime. This technology has experienced many changes over time with many advancements occurring. DNA testing is a matter of serious concern...

The putative loss of professionalism in medicine has of late become of serious concern to practitioners, educators, ethicists and the public. Impassioned pleas for its restitution abound. Serious ethical obligations are linked to the idea of a profession. Yet, most of the definitions have been socio-historical, political or legal. Important as these aspects may be, there is need for a firmly ...

The Service scenarios have a crucial role in the overall functionality of Information Systems (IS). They should be treated and examined very carefully in order to fulfill the end-user expectations and the overall platform behavior by itself. To have a qualitative scenarios it is not enough to treat only the user expectation but also these scenarios should be in compliance with legal and ethical...

Using the lens of positive organizational ethics, we theorized that empathy affects decisions in ethical dilemmas that concern the well-being of not only the organization but also other stakeholders. We hypothesized and found that empathetic managers were less likely to comply with requests by an authority figure to cut the wages of their employees than were non-empathetic managers. However, wh...

Smart technologies and progressive automation raise questions concerning the use of such technologies. The design challenge to enhance usability cannot be seen apart from the broader societal, and ethical concern of how technologies are accommodated in a way of living. The designer’s tinkering to improve usability, is therefore an ethically relevant practice, as is the consumers engagement with...

The paper outlines the universal problem of ensuring ethical practices in human subject research, and focuses on specific difficulties faced in the developing world with particular reference to Pakistan. It discusses the influence of traditional and hierarchical social norms of physician-patient relationships in heightening these problems. Two emerging issues of specific concern in Pakistan are...

This article on mitochondrial replacement technology briefly explains and defends the legitimacy of such terms as 'three-parent embryos', 'three-parent babies' and 'three-person IVF'. Next, it reviews select ethical objections to mitochondrial replacement technology that fall into four, sometimes overlapping, categories: (i) harms to egg providers; (ii) harms to potential offspring and future g...

An unusual number of featured articles in our newspapers have included discussions about ethics or ethical behavior, most often, the stories concern ethical violations or unethical behavior. Think of all those corporate CEOs and financial advisors, not to mention our government officials, for instance, Anthony Williams, mayor of the District of Columbia, and Senator Robert G. Torricelli. Unfort...