오두남 1) ․엄영란 2) ․김춘미 3) ․주세진 4) ․최정현 4) ․박명숙 5) 주요어 : 간호, 학생, 실습, 대처, 경험 1) 호서대학교 간호학과, 기초과학연구소 조교수 2) 순천향대학교 간호학과 명예교수 3) 선문대학교 간호학과 교수 4) 남서울대학교 간호학과 부교수

This article reports and analyses a 'wrongful life' lawsuit brought against a genetic counsellor who failed to refer a woman for prenatal genetic testing despite her plea to do so; this resulted in the wrongful birth of a child with a genetic abnormality. As a result of negligence, the mother did not have a termination and the baby was born. This is an event that reveals the troublesome nature of prenatal genetic testing applications in medical practice in Korea. The case presentation and critique illuminates how genetic research and its applications in practice influence human life and society. The central issues involved in the lawsuit are the discrepancies between present practice and the law, and lack of respect for the client's request to make self-determined reproductive choices. The lawsuit is explored in terms of the ethical grounds for the court's ruling, the responsibility of the genetic counsellor, the sociocultural impact of genetic testing in Korean society, and people's ability to make informed choices about how this technology is applied in medical practice.

The purposes of this study were to investigate the ethical aspects of induced abortion from the viewpoint of Korean women, and to compare and contrast their ethical considerations and values with the views of western ethical scholars. The two extremes of ethical arguments about induced abortion are pro-life and pro-choice. However, the Korean women who participated in this study showed that conflicting ethical values were raised between the principle of caring and the sanctity of life or the principle of respect for the person, not between the right of self-determination and the sanctity of life. The results of the study suggest that it would be better to include the viewpoints of women in any ethical discussion on abortion in order for ethicists and health professionals to understand more fully the dimensions of moral clinical problems and be in a better position to discuss them in a practical manner.

the Korean Bioethics Advisory Commission (KBAC), sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology, published a set of recommendations for biotechnological research and application, including scientific experiments with human embryos. Four days later, the KBAC held a public hearing to finalize its recommendations. Since then, public reaction and debate over the ethical aspects of human embryo research have actively surfaced. Most leaders of religious organizations, especially Catholic churches, objected to any type of embryo research. On the other hand, some leaders of the scientific community supported freer scientific research on human embryos.The KBAC recommendations, as well as the guidelines on the safety of biotechnology research from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, will influence the legislative process of the National Assembly when the hearing is held. 1 The Science, Technology, Information, and Telecommunication Committee of the National Assembly inquires into specific information on bioethical issues surrounding scientific research on human embryos. The committee plans to propose a bill governing the bioethical issues of biotechnological research and application during the next legislative session. Opponents of the KBAC recommendations were also organized as an ad hoc committee. 2 These activists demanded that some of the KBAC recommendations be amended.This article aims to clarify some of the major issues and positions of different groups that are involved in the dispute over scientific research on the human embryo and the KBAC recommendations.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify the presence/absence of ethical considerations in the published articles of nursing journals. Methods: The ethical considerations of 331 articles published in six nursing journals having ethical considerations in their “instructions for authors” were examined. The following ethical considerations were reviewed: compliance with the Helsinki Declaration, approval of an independent ethical review committee (IRB), informed consent, protection of privacy and confidentiality, and the notification of conflicts of interest. Results: Two hundred and seventy three of 331 (82.2%) articles had at least one ethical consideration, the most common of which was obtaining informed consent (80.1%). However, none of the articles included compliance with the Helsinki Declaration, and only 15.7% of the articles included obtaining written informed consent. The articles written in English showed more ethical considerations than those written in Korean in the aspects of IRB approval (p<0.0001) and obtaining written informed consent (p=0.050). For research methodology, qualitative studies had more ethical considerations than experimental studies or surveys in terms of protecting privacy and confidentiality (p=0.022) and obtaining written informed consent (p=0.011). Conclusion: The ethical considerations in the articles published in the nursing journals examined did not fully reflect the ethical considerations listed in the journals’ instructions for authors. This study suggests that editors should pay greater attention in determining whether or not articles published in their journals follow the ethical considerations in their instructions for authors.