Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine (May 2022)

Entropy as the main justification for research in medical ethics

  • Alban Zarzavadjian Le Bian,
  • Louis Pantel,
  • Christophe Tresallet,
  • Marie-France Mamzer

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13010-022-00121-5
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 17, no. 1
pp. 1 – 2

Abstract

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Abstract Ethics is an unconventional field of research for a surgeon, as ethics in surgery owns several specificities and surgery is considered an aggressive specialty. Therefore, the interest of research in medical ethics is sometimes unclear. In this short essay, we discussed the interest of research in medical ethics using a comparison to thermodynamics and mainly, entropy. During the transformation of a figure from one state to another, some energy is released or absorbed; yet, a part of this energy is wasted because of “unordered” (and unsuccessful) reactions: it is Entropy. This “wasted energy” exists in Medical practice and justifies research in Medical ethics.

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