- Abortion
- the intentional ending of a pregnancy.
- Active euthanasia
- a form of euthanasia in which a patient’s life is terminated using medical interventions (e.g., administering a lethal dose of medication).
- Anthropocentric
- human-centered.
- Anthropogenic climate change
- changes in Earth’s climate caused or influenced by human activity.
- Applied ethics
- an area of ethics that focuses on the application of moral norms and principles to controversial issues to determine the rightness of specific actions.
- Bioethics
- a field that studies ethical issues that emerge with advances in biology, technology, and medicine.
- Clinical trials
- trials designed to test new medical interventions and establish a drug’s dosage, determine possible side effects, and demonstrate efficacy.
- Deep ecology
- an approach to environmental ethics that assumes all living things are valuable in their own right and not only because of their usefulness.
- Deontologist
- someone who believes that ethical actions follow universal moral laws.
- Ensoulment
- the point in time when a developing life is believed to possess a soul.
- Environmental ethics
- an area of applied ethics that attempts to rethink our relationship to the natural world and identify right conduct in our dealings with the nonhuman world.
- Euthanasia
- means “good death” and refers to the ending of a human life to avoid suffering.
- Forms
- the means by which an invisible, unchanging creator gives rise to the material world that we live in.
- Germ-line interventions
- inheritable genetic modification.
- Human augmentation
- refers to attempts to enhance or increase human capabilities through technological, biomedical, or other interventions.
- Hylomorphism
- the idea that being is composed of matter and form that causes the being to actualize its potential.
- Institutional review boards (IRBs)
- committees tasked with reviewing and vetting parameters of trials to protect participants and identify potential issues.
- Instrumental value
- possessing value as a means to something else or for the sake of something else.
- Intrinsic value
- possessing value in itself or for its own sake.
- Meaningful work
- work that is at the same time understood as an end and a possessor of moral status.
- Opportunity cost
- the cost incurred by not pursuing other options.
- Passive euthanasia
- a form of euthanasia in which treatment is withheld or withdrawn with the expectation that a patient will die sooner than they would with continued medical intervention.
- Personhood
- the capacity humans possess that distinguish them as beings capable of morality.
- Physician-assisted suicide
- (PAS) a practice in which a physician provides the means (e.g., a prescription for a lethal dose of medication) and/or information to assist a patient in ending their own life.
- Principle of autonomy
- principle that states that patients have a right to exercise agency or self-determination when it comes to making decisions about their own health care in clinical settings.
- Principle of beneficence
- principle that states that we should act in ways that benefit others or that are for the good of others.
- Principle of clinical equipoise
- principle that states that randomized trials should be conducted in a way that balances the interests of participants and aims of science.
- Principle of justice
- principle that states that the distribution and practice of health care should be equitable or fair.
- Principle of nonmaleficence
- principle that states that we should act in ways that do not cause harm to others.
- Shareholders
- individuals who own a share of a corporation.
- Somatic cell interventions
- genetic interventions in which genetic changes cannot be inherited or passed to a patient’s offspring.
- Stakeholders
- any individual who has a stake in a business’s operations.
- Strong artificial intelligence
- machines that perform multiple cognitive tasks like humans but at a very rapid pace (machine speed).
- Weak artificial intelligence
- machines that perform primarily one task, such as Apple’s Siri or social media bots.