Ethics and technology

It is a fact that less than thirty years ago, many of the patients who now survive great trauma, chronic illness, or who are at the extremes of age because of medical technology would have died relatively quickly. Without what might be termed the extraordinary means of artificial respirators, defibrillators, dialysis machines, and other life-supporting equipment, those same patients would be unable to survive and nature would take its course. Much of modern medicine depends on the development and application of high technology equipment. The author focuses on the need for medical scientists and engineers to be introduced to medical ethics from the outset of their professional lives in the same way as doctors and medical students