Speaker 1: You think you're doing something for the good of the patient,
Speaker 1: but with it comes all kinds of questions about what
Speaker 1: is the right thing to do. Legally, we know what
Speaker 1: we're supposed to do, but ethically it gets more complicated.
Speaker 2: Over the past few decades, we've adopted all kinds of
Speaker 2: new medical technologies ventilators, IVF, brain implants, and when bioethicists
Speaker 2: consider these innovations, they often return to the same questions,
Speaker 2: Just because we can do something, does it mean we should?
Speaker 2: And who gets to make those kinds of decisions? When
Speaker 2: does it seem like playing god.
Speaker 1: We're not the ethics gods, and we're not the ethics police,
Speaker 1: and I also like to say we're not the ethics bullies.
Speaker 1: We help people think through well given to equally ethically
Speaker 1: acceptable options, equally ethically problematic, which one can people live with?
Speaker 2: I'm Lauren A Roora Hutchinson. I'm the director of the
Speaker 2: Ideas Lab at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics.
Speaker 2: I've spent years working on stories about the ways in
Speaker 2: which medicine and science show up in people's everyday lives,
Speaker 2: and now I'm doing a deep dive into stories about bioethics.
Speaker 2: I'm going behind the scenes to discover how some of
Speaker 2: the most significant medical innovations have impacted people's lives in
Speaker 2: ways that raise not just questions about medicine, but about morality.
Speaker 3: This entire bonus life that I have from this device
Speaker 3: is the only reason that I am still alive today.
Speaker 3: Their hearts were beating, their skin was warm, they had pulses,
Speaker 3: their chest was going up and down with breaths, all
Speaker 3: of those things a brain dead person can do.
Speaker 2: I got a little vile out and it's just like
Speaker 2: five millilters of liquid gold.
Speaker 3: You know, how do you put a price on that?
Speaker 2: I don't know. New medical technologies, whether they're for saving
Speaker 2: lives or creating babies, can generate a multitude of ethical questions.
Speaker 3: You sort of have to ask yourself, what would I
Speaker 3: do as a parent? Wouldn't I do anything I possibly could?
Speaker 3: How can you not try everything when you're trying to
Speaker 3: save the life of your child.
Speaker 2: Join me this season as we explore some of the
Speaker 2: toughest questions in bioethics. You'll hear from patients, doctors, and
Speaker 2: bioethicists as they share stories of facing complex moral dilemmas.
Speaker 3: Some members of the family. We're very concerned, she was declared.
Speaker 3: Brain did to hastily. As we were leaving his room,
Speaker 3: his family grabbed us and said, you know you're not
Speaker 3: going anywhere. We demand that you reconsider.
Speaker 4: We all have benefited from scientific discovery on the backs
Speaker 4: of other people. This one was on my back, my
Speaker 4: husband's back, and my family's back.
Speaker 2: Pushkin Industries and the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics.
Speaker 2: This is playing God. The first episode drops on October tenth.
Speaker 2: Find it wherever you get your podcasts.