Medical Ethics and New Technologies The rapid pace of technological advances has profound implications for medical applications far beyond their traditional roles to prevent, treat, and cure disease. Cloning, genetic engineering, gene therapy, human-computer interfaces, nanotechnology, and designer drugs have the potential to modify inherited predispositions to disease, select desired characteristics in embryos, augment "normal" human performance, replace failing tissues, and substantially prolong life span. Because of their unique training, physicians have a responsibility to help shape the debate concerning the appropriate uses of, and limits that should be placed on, these new techniques. . | Chapter 001. The Practice of Medicine Part 8 Medical Ethics and New Technologies The rapid pace of technological advances has profound implications for medical applications far beyond their traditional roles to prevent treat and cure disease. Cloning genetic engineering gene therapy human-computer interfaces nanotechnology and designer drugs have the potential to modify inherited predispositions to disease select desired characteristics in embryos augment normal human performance replace failing tissues and substantially prolong life span. Because of their unique training physicians have a responsibility to help shape the debate concerning the appropriate uses of and limits that should be placed on these new techniques. The Physician as Perpetual Student It becomes all too apparent from the time we graduate from medical school that as physicians our lot is that of the perpetual student and the mosaic of our knowledge and experiences is eternally unfinished. This concept can be at the same time exhilarating and anxiety-provoking. It is exhilarating because we will continue to expand our knowledge that can be applied to our patients it is anxiety-provoking because we realize that we will never know as much as we want or need to know. At best we will translate this latter feeling into energy to continue to improve ourselves and realize our potential as physicians. In this regard it is the responsibility of a physician to pursue new knowledge continually by reading attending conferences and courses and consulting colleagues and the Internet. This is often a difficult task for a busy practitioner however such a commitment to continued learning is an integral part of being a physician and must be given the highest priority. Research Teaching and the Practice of Medicine The title doctor is derived from the Latin docere to teach and physicians should share information and medical knowledge with colleagues with students of medicine and related professions and with their .
