SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF NURSING
BONIFACIO ST., BAGUIO CITY, BENGUET

Genetic
Engineering
(Nursing Ethics)

BY:
PACYADO, Rene
CAMPO, Lyanne Kae
IRREVERRE, Wreignna Joie
SIMEON, May Ann

SUBMITTED TO:
MR. GILBERT MARZAN, RN
Instructor

Protagoras
A Greek thinker taught that man is the measure of all things, of things that
are that they are and of things that are not that they are not. His teaching is known
as the man- measure principle.
Man, in Protagoras view, is the center of all values and meanings. Without
man, there is no science, no philosophy, no religion and whatever else.
He is the measure of all things that are that they are. Man, for instance, is
the measure of his own knowledge, beliefs, society, work, government, and
anything related to him.

GENETIC ENGINEERING
Genetic engineering is the process of manually adding new DNA to an organism.
The goal is to add one or more new traits that are not already found in that
organism. Examples of genetically engineered (transgenic) organisms currently on
the market include plants with resistance to some insects, plants that can tolerate
herbicides, and crops with modified oil content.
The notion of genetic engineering is thus the introduction of human design into the
formation of new genetic combinations in order to produce desired results. It means
direct intervention in genetic make-up of a living being, the replacement of genes or
the addition of new genes to the genetic code or blueprint of an organism.
In other words it involves the whole process of altering genes, the building blocks of
life, in order to achieve either a radically, or a completely new, human being.

SUMMARY
As genetic and genomic studies grow in scale, there are ethical concerns
related to the collection and use of genetic information. The emergence of large
public databases potentially redefine the terms of participation in genetic and
genomic research, and suggests the changing application of traditional ethical
principles such as privacy or consent. For this study, we wanted to see whether
such developments are reflected in the informed consent processes in human
genetic and genomic studies. Therefore, we performed a systematic review of the
empirical studies that examined informed consent involving large genetic databases
in human genetic and genomic studies, grouped the identified issues related to the
different stakeholders (including subjects, researchers, and institutional review
boards) and discussed the limitations and implications of these findings. Major
themes related to the place of bioethical considerations, procured tissues, people
involved, process of informed consent and study procedures. Frequently raised
issues included confidentiality of participants, documentation of informed consent,
public attitudes, future use of participant samples or data, and disclosure of results.

Awareness and attention to these bioethical issues as well as assiduousness in

managing these concerns in genetic/genomic research would further strengthen and
safeguard the rights, safety and well-being of genetic research participants.
A literature search was conducted using two major databases, the National
Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) PubMed/Medline and Web of Science, to
identify published empirical research papers until October 2013 that investigated
informed consent related to genetic and genomic studies and involving relevant
stakeholders [including research participants, researchers, institutional review board
(IRB) members, community representative groups, general public] or databases.
The keywords used included genetic, genomic, informed consent, empirical. All
potential papers of interest were retrieved and evaluated for satisfaction of
inclusion criteria described below. Additionally, references from selected articles
were manually evaluated and additional articles were included if they met the
inclusion criteria.
The articles were included in the review if they satisfied the following criteria:
(i) the article was published in peer-reviewed journals in English language, (ii) the
empirical study addressed informed consent issues related to genetic studies
involving different stakeholders (including research participants, patients,
researchers, general public and IRB members) or relevant databases. Abstracts,
conference proceedings, review and opinion papers were excluded. The process
involved familiarization with the data from the reviewed studies (summarized in
Table S1 supplementary information), generating initial codes for issues, searching
for main issues, reviewing the issues, defining and naming the issues and then
collating the findings (16). Specifically, for each individual article, two coders
extracted several variables including the site of study, aims, research design,
number and type of subjects, method of data analysis, and main findings. The data
were then summarized in specific tables and the core findings were discussed within
the team regarding ethical issues raised across different stakeholders including
clinical populations, healthy controls, researchers, IRBs, and public.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

This journal is all about the ethical issues related to bioethical issues. Major themes
related to bioethical considerations, procured tissues, people involved, process of
informed consent and procedures of study.

ETHICAL PRINCIPLES ON GENETIC ENGINEERING

Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism looks at the benefits and risks associated with genetics. One of the
problems with this sort of approach is that it is impossible to know the effects of,
say, GM crops. Genetically modified crops could potentially affect all farming.
1. Bentham considers all sentient creatures, and therefore may have problems
with using animals for pharmaceuticals or to grow human organs.
2. Singer would want to consider the interests of animals alongside humans. If
it were simply a case of a single pig dying to save a human life, Singer is
likely to value the human far more than the pig, as the human has far more
and greater interests. However, many of these technologies involve harming
a much larger number of animals, which would be a concern for Singer.

Kant's Ethical Theory

Kant takes a very different approach from utilitarianism. Kant's theory deals in
absolute rules. Rather than asking what the benefits of embryonic stem-cell
research might be, he would ask whether there was anything in principle wrong with
such research. It could mean that you had been experimented on instead of being
implanted. This is contrary to the will - an imperfect duty. Some Kantians disagree,
as they do not see the embryo as a 'potential person' yet.
Kant would be happy with xenotransplantation (using animals to grow organs for
humans) as long as there were no risks to humans. Animals have no intrinsic value
for Kant as they are not rational. Put another way, to ask "Would you will that you
be used to grow organs for humans if you were a pig?" would make no sense as pigs
aren't capable of willing this at all.

Natural Law

Genetic Engineering at first seems to run contrary to Natural Law. Natural Law is
based on the principle that God designed the world. Genetic Engineering involves
tampering with or changing the way the world is. However, we need to be cautious
here. All of medicine involves changing the way the world is in some way. The real
question is whether a therapy or procedure is intended to allow an organ or part of
the body to fulfill its purpose, or to carry out some other purpose.

Situation Ethics

Situation Ethics instructs us to love. It is a theory concerned with humans (one of

the four Ps is Personalism). Therefore situationists would be more than happy to use
animals to grow organs or pharmaceuticals. The real question with these therapies
is: is it Pragmatic (another of the four Ps). Do xenotransplantation and 'pharming'
work? There is good evidence to suggest they do work very successfully, so
Situation Ethics would support them.

Virtue Ethics

Virtue Ethics is never easy to apply to concrete, complex ethical dilemmas.

Ethicists, and doctors, should be habitually kind, courageous, temperate etc., which
may lead to right decisions made in difficult cases. Aristotle also prized wisdom
above all else, and informed debate may well be helpful in some of these very
difficult areas. Justice was one of the cardinal virtues, so new therapies would have
to be fair - available to the wealthy and poor alike, rather than expensive
enhancement therapies for those with money while the poor die of treatable
conditions due to lack of funding.

MacIntyre may come to the conclusion that xenotransplantation would work

in America and Europe, but would not be appropriate for countries with

predominantly pagan belief systems where people may feel they have spirits
from animals in them if the organ grew in an animal.

INSIGHTS
Going through this journal as a group we stand against genetic engineering for
several reasons.
First we go against genetic engineering because we believe that only God can
decide for what a person should be. Second it is best if a child would inherit genes
from his or her parents and these should not be modified. But as future nurses we
should be open to sevral changes such as that of genetic engineering.
As the word of GOD says in Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Likewise, if man is made in Gods image, then to change man is to go away from the
image in which God made us, or perhaps even offensive.
REFERENCE:
Khan,A.(2014). Informed consent for human genetic and genomic studies: a
systematic review. dDepartment of General Psychiatry, Institute of Mental Health,
Singapore,
Singapore.Retrieved
from:
http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=bb846457-7846-42a0a607-2ae70ca7bd1e%40sessionmgr111&vid=10&hid=124