Prompted Post 5: Code of Ethics

For this week’s post I found the code of ethics for the Biomedical Engineering Society. This Particular code was approved by the society in February of 2004. The code is as follows:

Code of Ethics

Biomedical engineering is a learned profession that combines expertise and responsibilities in engineering, science, technology, and medicine. Since public health and welfare are paramount considerations in each of these areas, biomedical engineers must uphold those principles of ethical conduct embodied in this Code in professional practice, research, patient care, and training. This Code reflects voluntary standards of professional and personal practice recommended for biomedical engineers.

Biomedical Engineering Professional Obligations

Biomedical engineers in the fulfillment of their professional engineering duties shall:

1. Use their knowledge, skills, and abilities to enhance the safety, health, and welfare of the public.
2. Strive by action, example, and influence to increase the competence, prestige, and honor of the biomedical engineering profession.

Biomedical Engineering Health Care Obligations

Biomedical engineers involved in health care activities shall:

1. Regard responsibility toward and rights of patients, including those of confidentiality and privacy, as their primary concern.
2. Consider the larger consequences of their work in regard to cost, availability, and delivery of health care.

Biomedical Engineering Research Obligations

Biomedical engineers involved in research shall:

1. Comply fully with legal, ethical, institutional, governmental, and other applicable research guidelines, respecting the rights of and exercising the responsibilities to colleagues, human and animal subjects, and the scientific and general public.
2. Publish and/or present properly credited results of research accurately and clearly.

Biomedical Engineering Training Obligations

Biomedical engineers entrusted with the responsibilities of training others shall:

1. Honor the responsibility not only to train biomedical engineering students in proper professional conduct in performing research and publishing results, but also to model such conduct before them.
2. Keep training methods and content free from inappropriate influence from special interests.

Some of my beliefs are mirrored by this code of ethics.  From the first section about professional obligations, I whole-heartedly believe that a position like this is responsible for improving the quality of life for anybody that their field can reach. This relates to one of the sections from the second category relating to engineers in the health care field. This part talks about the duty of engineers to consider the applicability of their work as in the cost and availability of their work. During my free posts I have often considered cost of the advancements I have looked into. To me it seems as if the engineers could have put more work into their creations being made available to everyone. In the case with the artificial hearts that brand hasn’t been available for years even though it is more effective than it was supposed to be.  Another example is from the section about training and keeping training free of special interests. I think it is a good thing to mention and uphold in the code of ethics. I think it could be expanded, however. I believe that all of a bioengineers work should be carried out with the intent of improving the quality of life for everyone they can and not just a paycheck. I think that this is an idea that should be applied to every professional field it can.

        One thing I am doing in college to prepare for this field is learning about the field. This will help me in a variety of areas of fulfilling the code of ethics. One in particular is the very first obligation. By going to school I hope I am gaining knowledge and skills I can apply to the field in hopes of making a grand new product that has the capacity to help and many people as possible. Another aspect of the code is being covered by this class in particular. School is teaching me how to present my findings accurately. For this class we do a fair amount of research, with more to come, and I am honing my skills in stating what I have found and how it relates to my overall topic. Lastly I am going to school to learn what the guidelines and rules of the profession are. This way I can adhere to several parts of the code and pest of all not spend time in jail.

Works Cited

"Biomedical Engineering Society Code of Ethics (2004)." Codes of Ethics Collection. N.p., 24 Oct. 2011. Web. 06 Oct. 2013.