Bioengineers, health-care technology and bioethics

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Abstract
Technology has created moral dilemmas in recent years creating an increased interest in the field of bioethics, which affects engineers in biomedicine, physicians, other health-care professionals, and society in general. For example devices like the kidney dialysis machine or Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) diagnostic scanner demonstrate state-of-the-art capabilities, yet they are very expensive. Therefore, standards of the past involving health care and allocation of resources are changing, and professionals must be aware of this change, as well as the responsibility for complete testing and review during the research and development process of medical devices. In this paper, we illustrate technological impact and stress the necessity of an understanding of ethics in order to deal effectively with product liability, conflicts of interests, and allocation of scarce resources. Hopefully, this will result in awareness and education in ethics and professional reponsibilities. This symposium is sponsored by ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) Committee F-4 on Medical and Surgical Materials and Devices, in co-operation with the Committee on Biomedical Engineering of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. It will cover, by invited and submitted papers (deadline for c. 500-word abstracts is 1 April 1985), four areas.

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