Introducing: playing god?

A new podcast about the complex ethical questions that get raised with groundbreaking medical innovations. Brought to you by Pushkin Industries and the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. New episodes weekly starting October 10.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
You think you're doing something for the good of the patient,
but with it comes all kinds of questions about what
is the right thing to do. Legally, we know what
we're supposed to do, but ethically it gets more complicated.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Over the past few decades, we've adopted all kinds of
new medical technologies ventilators, IVF, brain implants, and when bioethicists
consider these innovations, they often return to the same questions,
Just because we can do something, does it mean we should?
And who gets to make those kinds of decisions? When

(00:41):
does it seem like playing god.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
We're not the ethics gods, and we're not the ethics police,
and I also like to say we're not the ethics bullies.
We help people think through well given to equally ethically
acceptable options, equally ethically problematic, which one can people live with?

Speaker 2 (01:01):
I'm Lauren A Roora Hutchinson. I'm the director of the
Ideas Lab at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics.
I've spent years working on stories about the ways in
which medicine and science show up in people's everyday lives,
and now I'm doing a deep dive into stories about bioethics.
I'm going behind the scenes to discover how some of

(01:23):
the most significant medical innovations have impacted people's lives in
ways that raise not just questions about medicine, but about morality.

Speaker 3 (01:33):
This entire bonus life that I have from this device
is the only reason that I am still alive today.
Their hearts were beating, their skin was warm, they had pulses,
their chest was going up and down with breaths, all
of those things a brain dead person can do.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
I got a little vile out and it's just like
five millilters of liquid gold.

Speaker 3 (01:58):
You know, how do you put a price on that?

Speaker 2 (02:02):
I don't know. New medical technologies, whether they're for saving
lives or creating babies, can generate a multitude of ethical questions.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
You sort of have to ask yourself, what would I
do as a parent? Wouldn't I do anything I possibly could?
How can you not try everything when you're trying to
save the life of your child.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Join me this season as we explore some of the
toughest questions in bioethics. You'll hear from patients, doctors, and
bioethicists as they share stories of facing complex moral dilemmas.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
Some members of the family. We're very concerned, she was declared.
Brain did to hastily. As we were leaving his room,
his family grabbed us and said, you know you're not
going anywhere. We demand that you reconsider.

Speaker 4 (02:48):
We all have benefited from scientific discovery on the backs
of other people. This one was on my back, my
husband's back, and my family's back.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Pushkin Industries and the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics.
This is playing God. The first episode drops on October tenth.
Find it wherever you get your podcasts.