Medical Biotechnologies from the Ethical Perspective of the Responsibility of the Common Good

Abstract

An essential component of quality of life is accessible and performant medical care, provided through responsible medical acts which guarantee the safety and security of the patient. The substantial increase in the medical needs of man and society lead to the development of various medical fields which, in turn, generated a wide area of applicability for biomedical technologies, thus facilitating new perspectives in the world wide management of health issues. Currently, ensuring an adequate standard of the medical act using new technologies is conditioned by standards of medical practice in accordance with internationally and locally accepted ethical and legal directions. In the public space, the advances achieved with the help of biomedical technologies are generally associated with the common good at dimensions amplified by a level of expectation sometimes too high. Moreover, practical evidence accumulated at a provable level, enable the statement that under the influence of science and technologies, moral changes are constantly generated in the lives of the actors involved (medical staff, patients). The potential of medical biotechnologies to change the perception of good and of responsibility towards the human body appeals to the involvement of an ethical determinism in practical applications. In the current paper we will investigate the manner in which the usage and management of biomedical technologies acknowledges the necessity of assessing the common good in an ethical framework, the essence of which is given by the defining principles for the social and professional responsibility.