Bioethical Issues within Psychology and Psychiatry

Abstract

The issue of psychophysical health, mental diseases, their etiology and forms of therapy gives rise to many legal, ethical and deontological problems. A lot of cases of mental disturbances analyzed from the therapeutic perspective not only assume referring to deontological and legal reflection, but demand bioethical analysis as well. This especially concerns the use of therapies based on contemporary biotechniques, biotechnologies and neurophysiology that attempt to reach not only the sphere of symptoms, but also the sphere of causes of mental disturbances and diseases. Attempts to make the expectations for psychology and psychiatry objective have been verbalized in numerous deontological, ethical and legal documents. The ethical perspective presents as the main aim rescuing the patient's mental health as the ability to be a free and conscious subject of his acts. The choice of methods and therapeutic techniques should have the integral good of the person as its aim, with simultaneously minimizing unfavorable side effects. Hence one has to be cautious about such treatments as electroconvulsive therapy or psycho-surgical interference. It is unethical to use mentally ill persons in non-therapeutic medical experiments and as organ donors in transplant operations.