MHU 201: Foundations of Medical Humanities and MHU 498: Senior Seminar: Bioethics Selected Links by E. Zacharias

Principles of Clinical Ethics and Their Application to Practice is an introductory article to bioethics and how it relates to healthcare and practice. This is important for pre-health students to introduce themselves to bioethical principles if they have never taken a bioethics course, or any ethics course.

Ethical Principles—Emergency Medicine is an article pertaining to ethics, but within emergency medicine. Based on personal experience at Saint Leo University, and within the science department, there have been multiple students who have claimed they want to work within emergency medicine. Using bioethics and applying them to clinical situations is important, and pre-health students understanding that concept is also important.

The patient perspective in health care networks is an article that focuses on the patients' experiences and perspectives. This is why bioethics is incredibly important in the healthcare field. There are a multitude of stories from patients claiming they just felt like a bundle of symptoms or felt disrespected in a healthcare setting. It is important for patients to feel heard, and to feel like a human being when in a healthcare setting. Bioethics adds a layer of understanding and empathy that healthcare providers may not obtain without an introduction to bioethics. That is why it is important for pre-health students.

Did the COVID-19 pandemic make scientists forget “Primum Non-Nocere”, one of the most important principles of bioethics? This article was incredibly important because we have been living in a new definition of normal since COVID19. The concept of “do not harm” is a widely discussed topic. Since the start of the pandemic there have been a lot of ethical issues seen within healthcare. Issues that affect not only patients, but also healthcare workers. Although this article was published in 2019, these questions are still valid. We are still seeing the effects of long COVID. With that comes a lot of questions. This article is a good introductory article to these specific issues.

Lessons Learned from Undergraduate Students in Designing a Science-Based Course in Bioethics, this article shows the benefits to introducing pre-health students to bioethics. These bioethics courses stimulate pre-health students in multiple ways. I want the students to see the benefits of expanding their knowledge of bioethics during their time in their undergraduate courses.

Research Challenges and Bioethics Responsibilities in the Aftermath of the Presidential Apology to the Survivors of the U. S. Public Health Services Syphilis Study at Tuskegee, this article talks about the Tuskegee syphilis study. This study was incredibly unethical, harmful, and filled with multiple violations of human rights. Based on personal experiences at Saint Leo University, multiple students have claimed to have no prior knowledge about this horrific study. It is important for pre-health students to know about past, present, and trending issues within healthcare. If we do not educate the future population of past violations within healthcare, how can we prevent them from occurring again? This paper discusses the violations and issues with the Tuskegee study.

Lessons from HeLa Cells: The Ethics and Policy of Biospecimens, This article discusses HeLa cells. In the 1950s Henrietta Lacks had her cells sampled and taken without her permission. This sample led to the first immortalized cells ever. These cells have been used to test countless vaccines, and we have Henrietta Lacks to thank for that. But Henrietta Lacks was never thanked in her lifetime or consulted. Neither were most of her children, and her relatives in their lifetime. Millions of dollars were made from Henrietta Lacks cells, and her family never received any money. This is a major bioethics issue. There are so many things wrong that happened to Henrietta, and her family. This is a major wrong that occurred within healthcare and medical research. It is important for students to read her story and understand consent.

Ethical challenges for women’s healthcare highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, this article demonstrates the issues women have normally faced within healthcare but have been heightened due to the pandemic. The pandemic is still ongoing in the world. This pandemic has heighted the issues surrounding women's access to healthcare. This will not be the last pandemic we see. It is important for future healthcare professionals to understand the ethics surrounding women's access to care. If we plan to fix the issues, we must understand them, and prepare better in the future.

In the article Ethics of mandatory vaccination for healthcare workers, COVID-19 saw the rise of a lot of issues with healthcare. One of those being medical professionals refusing to get vaccinated. With the rise of the anti vax movement, it is important to understand the ethics of the situation in healthcare regarding mandatory vaccines for healthcare workers. Bioethics do not just affect patients, but also healthcare workers, and it is important for pre-health students to be informed and understand why there are mandatory vaccinations for healthcare workers.

Bioethics, Race, and Contempt, this article is incredibly important. Medical racism is a massive issue within healthcare and always has been. Pre-health students, who plan to work in healthcare need to understand this and understand that they need to contribute to the solution. It is our duty to work towards equity within healthcare, and pre-health students need to be educated on these issues.