Iranian Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine

Scientific research as well as a lot of social and individual effects for human beings has caused many moral problems. The prospect of children building through somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) or human cloning has caused widespread moral concerns around the world. Accordingly, various reports and regulations have been published at the national and international levels that address the ethical principles for research involving human subjects. In this regard, the Belmont report is of particular importance, in which three fundamental principles of human research have been taken into consideration. These three principles are: the principle of "Respect for Persons", the principle of "Beneficence" and the principle of "justice". In the field of this new biotechnology, namely, human cloning with respect to the use of human subjects in it and according to the ethical principles for research involving human subjects, there are three types of discussion: problems of Safety; a particular problem in the field of business Satisfaction and the problem of the exploitation of women. Considering that about 90% of cloning efforts in animals have been encountered with many problems such as abortion, early death, the development of certain diseases and physical defects, etc., it is not wise to use it in humans and it causes certain and unpredictable problems in cloned people.
 

Adherence to professional ethics based on spiritual intelligence is conducive to patient welfare and satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between professional ethics and spiritual intelligence of Kerman University of Medical Sciences' students. In this descriptive co relational study, 150 undergraduate medical students were enrolled in the census. The tools used were spiritual intelligence and professional ethics questionnaires. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 22 using independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, and Pearson correlation coefficient. The mean and standard deviation of professional ethics score was 57.72±6.2 and the spiritual intelligence of students was 73.97±12 12.3. The lowest score of professional ethics was in the area of ​​responsibility and the most in sympathy with others. There was also a significant positive relationship between professional ethics scores and students' spiritual intelligence (P = 0.001). This means that by educating and enhancing students 'spiritual intelligence during their studies, one can expect to increase students' professional ethics during clinical work and professional communication with the patient. To this end, teachers' emphasis on aspects of ethical applied education, especially during clinical education, as well as honoring spiritual patterns as the foundation of ethical education during college education seems necessary.

The Zebrafish is a preeminent model organism that, with its most prominent features, has expanded the boundaries of science in many disciplines. Characteristics of this small freshwater fish, with the help of biologists, showed that it has a highly comparable genetic with mammals such as mice and rats. For example, the emergence of new and efficient methods for duplicating and editing the genome has helped to increase the growth of its use in various fields of science, including toxicology, drug discovery, transplant biology, disease modeling, and even aquaculture. Continued maturation and adoption of the Zebrafish model system require the improvement of methods and approaches for the cultivation and management of these fishes in controlled reservoirs, so that, ultimately, research on this fish is more reusable, cost-effective and in a framework for ethics in research. Knowledge and technology transfer from laboratory science, medicine, and aquaculture is a necessary part of this development, which should be in line with ethical standards in science. In this paper, we would consider the ethical and technical principles of working with Zebrafish as a species model in studies of medical sciences.
 

Over the past years in the literature of medical ethics about the doctor-patient relationship, patient's rights have been greatly considered, but the other side of this relationship is not concerned, and the physician’s obligations have been highlighted. The two meanings are understood from the concept of   physicians’ rights; their rights in conflict with the patient rights’ and the right to self improvement. We want to review the causes of this neglect and its complications. The reasons for not paying attention to the physician’s rights include: traditional beliefs about the power imbalance in doctor-patient relationship, lack of emphasis in the four principles of medical ethics, lack of supportive structures, customer-orientation in medicine, and hyper medical professionalism. Continuing this neglect creates complications that include: physicians’ work-life imbalance, symbolic violence in their society, burnout of physicians, forgetting the principle of gratitude and ultimately, the lack of respect for patients' rights. Consequently, the discourse of medical ethics fails to achieve its primary goals.

Nowadays, social networks play a remarkable role in human societies. Instagram, as one of the most influential platforms, along with other functions, has become a place for the marketing and advertising of economic undertakings. Advertisements on Instagram are different from other forms of advertising. The market-driven nature of this network will create many legal challenges in the relationship between professions and consumers. Goods (such as medicines and herbal medicines) and health services (such as medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy) are related to the health of consumers. It is evident that any negligence on the part of the profession can cause serious harm to consumer’s physical and mental health. This article assesses the evolution of the relationship between the professional and the consumers. It discusses the ethics of Instagram marketing and health problem, along with reviewing the legal protection of consumer’s health in the -related goods and services using an analytical-descriptive method. The results of this paper show that violating consumer rights on Instagram can lead to four types of liability (criminal, legal, disciplinary, and ethical) for the offenders. In this way, the support of the legislator and the responsible authorities is essential for increasing the quality of this protection.
 

The phrase "Academic mobbing" can be described as character assassination or psychological harassment against a colleague. According to many published reports, individuals in any workplace, including the academic environment, may be targets of coworkers' antisocial behaviors such as accusation, humiliation, emotional abuse, and general offences. In addition to personal negative outcomes including decreased job satisfaction, increased occupational stress, and higher risk for anxiety and depression; academic mobbing can lead to decreased efficacy of the organization to reach its targets. Job dissatisfaction leads to decrease effort of faculties in performing educational and scientific activities that has indirect consequences on community. The direct effect of dissatisfaction of faculties would be decreased quality and quantity of educational services to students. Since the first steps to systematically deal with any social issue, including academic mobbing is understanding the nature and characteristics of the situation, the current review tends to introduce and establish the characteristics of academic mobbing as well as the role of the authorities in preventing or resolving the problem.

The purpose of this research is to investigate association between social influence, productivity, and performance among researchers of medical ethics field.  This research was done using common methods in scientometric studies with the method of co-author and network analysis. The statistical population of the study consists of all articles published in journals in the field of medical ethics, which were indexed in the database of web of science in the period of 1978-2017. A total of 14,231 articles and 20,845 researchers were surveyed. Data analysis was done using UciNet and SPSS softwares. Research findings based on the social influence that calculated for each researcher. The study of relationship between social influence and performance showed that there is positive correlation between performance and degree centrality. However, there is a negative correlation between performance and closeness and betweenness centrality. Also, the relation between social influence and productivity showed that there is a positive and significant correlation between social influence and productivity indices. The results showed that the researcher who have a good status in terms of performance, have a high social impact. In addition, researchers who have a high degree centrality are in a favorable position in terms of productivity and performance.

Moral sensitivity is the first step in making a moral decision and taking a moral judgment. An effort to promote nurses' moral sensitivity, education of ethical concepts, and using appropriate approaches to teaching ethics is still under discussion. Thus, this study was conducted to determine the effect of virtual teaching of ethical principles through narrative method on the ethical sensitivity of critical care nurses. In this quasi-experimental study, 60 critical care nurses were studied in two groups of test and control in 2 hospitals. The experimental group was taught ethical principles through virtual narrative method. Demographic information and Latezen moral sensitivity questionnaire were completed by nurses on three occasions (before, immediately after and two months after virtual education). Data were analyzed by SPSS 20 software. Results showed that the mean and standard deviation of nurses' moral sensitivity were 61.53 ± 9.24 before intervention and (60.60 ± 7.76 for the control group, and the association was not statistically significant (p> 0.05). However, there was a significant difference between the experimental group (77.50 ± 6.05) and the control group (60.83 ± 8.07 in the first post-test. In addition, there was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups (p <0.05) in the second post-test. Repeated measure analysis showed a significant difference between the ethical sensitivity scores in the experimental group, but no significant difference in the control group. According to the findings, the nurses' moral sensitivity was moderate at the beginning of the study, but after the intervention, the test group was at a high level and the control group was still at a moderate level. Thus, it is necessary to motivate nurses for recording and sharing their ethical challenges. Accordingly, they can promote their own ethical performance. Furthermore, their narratives can be used for education of other nurses and students of nursing.

Military psychologists and mental health professionals live and work alongside their potential patients. For the most important concerns of military psychologists are multiple relationships, confidentiality, sudden role shifts and avoiding harm. The purpose of this study was to explore experiences of the military psychologists regarding ethical challenges in the counseling centers of one of the Iranian military forces. This qualitative and content analysis study was performed on 31 military psychologists during 2019. Participants had a master's degree in one of the psychology majors and 5-15 years of work experience. Data were collected by electronic questionnaire, due to access difficulty. The most important challenges of professional ethics mentioned by the participants included boundaries of competence, confidentiality, multiple relationships, and sudden role shifts. The results of this study showed that one of the problems affecting the performance of military psychologists is ethics’ issues and its challenges. Thus, according to this study, to better manage possible ethical challenges for military psychologists, they are suggested to participate in workshops and become acquainted with important ethical decisions and ethical conflicts inherent to military settings, be active in obtaining consultation and supervisions, and involve themselves in self-monitoring programs to consistently make good ethical decisions.

In human communication, the relationship between the patient and the physician is one of the most challenging issues. This relationship is of critical importance in the medical ethics and forms the base of medical measures. Relationship between the physician and the patient brings about mutual trust between them to the extent that it overshadows physician’s skills. A physician needs to have the art of communication with the patients as well as his information in medical sciences. Damaging this communication leads to lack of efficiency, trust and satisfaction in the treatment of the patient. The authors of this article seek to analyze the major issues of medical ethics in the medical texts based on Mathnawi. Rumi has also made special mention of physicians' responsibilities and ethical duties in the stories of pulmonology, physiology, herbal therapy, routine treatment, and etc. In The story of “King and Handmaiden”, Confidentiality, Compassion, Kindness, and the expertise of saint against Handmaiden are issues that they are discussing in medical ethics. At the end of the story, audiences unbelievably are evaluating the performance of saint as opposed to the spirit of Hippocratic oath. In the story of “the old man and the physician”; deficiency of the communication between physician and patient is very definite. Not building trust and emotional communication in the relationship between the physician and the patient, specifically at the very first time which has happened without semiology has provided the context in which the patient distrust his physician and is not pleased with the treatment process. In the story of “Man who was desperately ill”, the physician has hidden the secret and also he has not given a clear and enough explanation for the prescription, therefore the patient's life is endangered.
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The observance of professional ethics standards’ is inherent nature of nursing profession. Observance of ethical standards by them will be an effective factor in improving performance of patient care and affecting the quality of health care. This study was conducted to determine the facilitating and Inhibitory factors of professional ethics from the perspective of nurses. This cross-sectional descriptive study with the participation of 367 nurses in Masjed-e-Soliman hospitals was performed in 2019. The data collection tool was a questionnaire of facilitating factors in the three dimensions of management, individual, and patients and inhibitory factors in three dimensions of management, environmental, and individual care; design, validity, and reliability of the questionnaire was reported by Dehghani. Data analysis was analyzed using SPSS version 22 and statistical tests. From the nurses' point of view, facilitating factors to follow ethics were: sufficient personnel in proportion to the number of patients (64.6%) in the managerial dimension, proper interpersonal relationship between colleagues and other treatment teams (60.3%) in the individual dimension;. appropriate treatment of patients with nursing staff (59.1%) in the patient dimension. The most important inhibitory factors were: lack of attention to the ability and skills of personnel during the division of labor (71.2%) in the managerial dimension; crowded and busy wards in environmental dimension  (69.6%); shortage of time in the individual and care dimension (66.4%). In this research, most important facilitating and inhibitory factors for following professional ethics standards in nurses was evaluated. Due to the necessity of observing the standards of professional ethics in nursing performance, the managers of health care organizations can observe the current situation by conducting periodic studies in the field of professional ethics from the perspective of nurses and patients.

Moral courage is the ability to overcome fear and performing the right action based on moral beliefs despite the potential danger. Nurses, as moral agents, need moral courage to properly manage moral problems and make a professional commitment to patients. Therefore, the above study was conducted to investigate the moral courage of nurses and related factors. In this descriptive cross-sectional study conducted in 2019, the research population was all nurses working in Baqiyatallah Hospital. After explaining the objectives of the study and obtaining the consent of the research, 220 nurses were selected as available samples. The data collection tool was Sadooghiasl questionnaire. After completing the questionnaire, they completed 187 sample questionnaires. SPSS software was used to analyze the data. The results of the study showed that the mean score of nurses' moral courage was 413.37 with a standard deviation of 46.70. Thirty percent had moderate moral courage and 69.5% had high moral courage. The results of the independent T-test and ANOVA showed that there is a statistically significant relationship between the variable employment status and the moral courage of nurses. Considering the results of this study and the many ethical challenges that exist in the nursing profession, the issue of moral courage and related factors and providing solutions to improve it, should be at the forefront of the health organization and nursing managers.

Professional ethics is one of the most important topics in medicine that educators or professors play an important role in teaching and measuring it. The present study was designed and conducted to evaluate the observance of professional ethics among surgical assistants of educational hospitals of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences in 2019 by self-assessment method. This study was a cross-sectional study. Each of the assistants completed a standard questionnaire that included the variables required for the study. The sample was selected according to population of surgical assistants in the general and orthopedic departments, who entered the study using census sampling method and were equal to 47 people. Of 47 participants, 29 were assistant general surgeons and 18 were orthopedic surgeons. Observance of professional ethics was acceptable. There was a significant relationship between knowledge and communication skills and assistants in both general and orthopedic departments (P <0.05). There was a significant relationship between professional ethics and assistants in both general and orthopedic departments (P<0.05). Respect for others with a mean of 1.66±6.0, had the highest mean rate. Also, interpersonal and social skills with an average of 2.17±4.48, had the lowest mean. Considering that inclusion of professional ethics in laws and regulations is one of the important and vital factors in growth and development of ethics, institutionalization of professional ethics in strategic plan should be considered by policy makers and structure, training and evaluation of professional ethics be reviewed.

This study seeks to identify one of the pioneers of traditional clinical medicine named Abdullah Azdi and his medical dictionary. This research is an analytical study. The focus of the search was on two keywords, Abdullah Azdi and Kitab al-Ma'ma, but the scope of the search included all appropriate terms such as: medicine, Bu Ali Sina, traditional medicine, medical dictionary, ethics, and medical law. Data were collected and analyzed using comprehensive library software (version one), Islamic History Library, Islamic Iran History and reputable national and international centers. The main purpose of the forthcoming research, on the one hand, is to identify and introduce points about life and beliefs, as well as Abdullah Azdi's specialized knowledge in the field of medicine, and on the other hand, to introduce his book, which is in fact a dictionary called "Kitab al-Ma'a". The researches of this research show that Abdullah Azdi was one of the students of Ibn Sina and the companion of Abu Rihan al-Biruni. In addition of being expert in clinical medicine, he was an ethical and professional physician and in every part of his book, he observes the Shari'a. The use of specialized medical terms indicates that he was surrounded by medical knowledge.

The National Medical Ethics Film & Photo Festival was held in February 2020 and ended with the registration of 487 works which 80 films and 36 photographs of them were finally selected and peer reviewed. The present article focuses on the films of this festival and tries to explain the experience of attracting, selecting, and judging films through the design and holding a festival by using action research method. The article, also, tries to analyze the selected films (50 documentaries, 20 short films, and 10 unspecified films) from medical ethics point of view. In this way, the thematic adaptation of the selected films with 16 topics declared by the festival has been used. One of the obvious findings of this study is the difference between the views of filmmakers and experts on medical ethics. This difference becomes more significant when we see that the number of films related to the 16 topics declared by the experts is one less than the number of the films that the filmmakers made and submitted to the festival on the 7 topics neglected in the text of the call. It seems that the camera of filmmakers in the field of medical ethics mainly focuses on the commitment of professionals and the vulnerability of patients. On the other hand, considering the number and variety of films in the festival, another finding of this study can be considered as the possibility of using short and documentary films to teach some concepts of medical ethics to medical students. 

Good and healthy communication between physician and patient is cornerstone of a complete medical care that has long been considered in sociology. From the classical point of view, the physician-patient relationship as a unique relationship encompasses a wide range of cultural and social influences. Electronic health record not only has facilitated the treatment and diagnosis process, but also has promoted the health care system by organizing patient records; however, it alters the physician-patient relationship process culturally and it will create new ethical challenges. Based on current findings and analyses Opinions of health experts about the cultural and communication dimensions of this technology, the electronic health record, despite its effectiveness, easy and convenient diagnosis, awareness of other physicians' diagnosis, earlier and better treatment, has cultural obstacles such as security, reduction of emotional and face-to-face actions, and fear of social stigma. Having a suitable cultural context and information and awareness can affect development of health technology. The results of this study, which have identified the role of culture on physician-patient relationships in context of using electronic health record, shows that building trust in patients and changing cultural conditions through education and improving system security can increase the efficiency of this system in health care processes.

Ethical climate is an important part of organizational culture which affects all aspects of individual characteristics and its improvement in health care centers causes better response of nurses to moral stress and ultimately promotes the quality of medical services. The aim of this study was to determine the nurses' perception of the ethical climate governing in clinical environment in the teaching hospitals of Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences in 2018. This study was a descriptive-correlational study performed on 300 nurses by purposive sampling method. Two questionnaires used for data collection included demographic information and Olson ethical climate questionnaire. Data analysis was performed using linear regression and mean (SD) tests and by SPSS version 20. The results of the study showed that the overall score of moral climate in the participants was 3.79 ± 0.67. The highest and lowest ethical climate scores in this study were related to the dimension of nursing managers (3.86± 0.74) and physicians (3.58 ± 0.79), respectively. Also, a significant relationship was observed between variables such as years of experience and age with the dimensions of the ethical climate (p<0.05). According to the score of ethical climate obtained in this study, which is less than some studies conducted in this field in Iran. Considering the importance of the ethical climate and the consequences of defects in this issue, it is necessary for hospital managers to make appropriate plans to set up a favorable ethical climate on clinical environment in their most important priorities.