Iranian Journal of

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Background: In modern biomedicine, there is an increasing speed of development of new ideas and technologies and, consequently, increasing speed of new applicable knowledge. The rapid advances in medicine and biotechnology during recent decades, is accompanied with important discussions about new questions and dilemmas in the field of professional ethics. The increased recognition of ethical problems has contributed to the emergence of medical ethics as a new, cooperative and collaborative discipline in the world.
Methods: This article provides an introduction to main issues in modern medical ethics. It is a review of a great deal of books and articles which are published in the recent years.
Results: Some of the issues discussed include: physician-patient relationship, consent and informed decision-making, issues before birth, and end of life issues. Ethical issues in organ transplantation, biotechnology, assisted reproduction, medical research, clinical ethics education, and resource allocation are also reviewed briefly.
Conclusion: This intensive review of the basic issues in contemporary medical ethics is aimed at providing health care professionals a basic knowledge about ethical issues within their clinical practice.

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Biomedical ethics is a branch of professional or practical ethics that examine the moral aspects of profession of medicine. Every professional ethics due its issues and problems determine an especial theory and principles. In this article after referring to the three branches of ethics and describing important schools of ethical theory we have explained the six main approaches to biomedical ethics: Utilitarianism, deontology, virtue ethics, principlism, care-based ethics and case-based ethics.

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Medicine and ethics have increasingly more links caused by considerable progresses in biotechnology in different fields of medical diagnosis, treatment and prevention. The issue of research ethics is one of the most important subjects which have been emphasized by international and regional organizations, policy-makers, medical and religious professions, scientists and researchers in different countries in recent decade. It is widely understood that research ethics committees typically play an important role in evaluating the ethical aspects of medical research. A ‘Research Ethics Committee’ (REC) is defined as a multidisciplinary, independent, body charged with reviewing research involving human participants to ensure that their dignity, rights and welfare are protected. Research ethics committees protect the welfare and rights of participants involved in research through reviewing research proposals, monitoring the conduct of research and dealing with complaints that arise from research. This manuscript will introduce you to the concepts underlying research ethics committees worldwide and in Iran. This paper will begin with a brief history of research ethics, continues with a concise overview of ethics committee situation and responsibilities, and ends with an outline of the national activities. We hope the manuscript could enhance awareness of biomedical researchers about status and duties of research ethics committees and consequently strengthen the RECs in our country.

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In the field of health care and medical practice, gain sharing plans should be carefully examined to be sure they reflect the codes of ethics. Ethical principles involved in gain sharing include informed consent and conflict of interest. Physicians must discharge their responsibilities to patients with loyalty, honesty and good faith, all the while avoiding conflict of interest. Conflict of interest rules usually focus on financial gain. This may raise some important issues, including kickbacks, fee-splitting and self-referral. These practices can potentially distort professional judgment. Some countries have rules of professional conduct governing these issues. In this article, we intend to describe importance of the issues of kickbacks, fee-splitting and self-referral in the field of clinical medicine and discuss some ethical issues that should be considered by physicians.

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Medical ethics has a long history worldwide, and the move towards a trans-cultural ethics must be based on an appreciation of the civilizations’ history. It is often thought that medical ethics history has begun by Hippocrates, however it is much older. It is clear that various cultures such as Babylonia, ancient Egypt, Greece, and the Persians have attempted to regulate medicine and to protect patients' rights in the known ancient world. One of the earliest written provisions in this field, which comes back to about 1750 BC, is the code of Hammurabi written by Babylonian. In this paper we aimed to explore the roots of medical ethics in Persian history, particularly, after adherence of Iranians to Islam. In this article, we used related books of great Iranian and non-Iranian historians, and examined some authentic articles collected through searches of databases such as Medline and Ovid and search engines such as Google Scholar. History of medicine in Iran has begun about fourth century BCE. Great Iranian physicians had paid special attention to ethics in their practices, teachings and manuscripts. There was a gap between the ancient civilizations and the Renaissance era in Europe, commonly called the dark ages (Medieval). The immense strides have been made by the Persians in that long interval which is briefly reviewed.