A set of principles and values that govern behavior to accord with a notion of morality. See especially deontological ethics, teleological ethics and utilitarian ethics, and also see autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice and suffering. The ethics of assisted reproductive technology, collaborative reproduction, the doctor-patient relationship, informed consent and human embryo research are much debated.

A set of ethical beliefs, in which principles and values are seen by adherents to be self-evident and not in need of more basic proof. The ethical principles are duty-binding, innately known, and by nature resistant to change.

A set of ethical beliefs based on the goodness or badness of consequences, whether actual, intended or predicted. For purposes here, restricted to consequences to individuals, in contrast to utilitarian ethics. Open to change according to empirical observation of outcomes (hence 'evidence based ethics').

A set of ethical beliefs based on maximising good for the greatest number of people. For modern purposes, similar to teleological ethics (i.e. consequential considerations) but with a community-wide reference instead of a context of individual priority. Nowadays concerned with the equitable and consistent distribution of restricted public resources. Open to change according to the systematic assessment of outcomes (and hence 'evidence based').

A moral compulsion for ethical action that is innate. The basis for deontological ethics.

Institutional ethics committee

An administrative and legal device by which approval to proceed based on known or predicted consequences is obtained and recorded from a patient or from a volunteer for medical research, and thus avoiding an accusation for what otherwise might be an assault. Just what 'informed' means can be the subject of much legal and ethical wrangling. One modern interpretation is that it means as much as the person giving the consent demonstrates that he or she wants to know (although most physicians, ethics committees, institutional review boards and courts underpin this with a minimum everyone should be told about the procedure being consented to).

(IRB) The US equivalent of an institutional ethics committee, set up to govern the ethical conduct of medical research.

The philosophical term coined by G.E. Moore early in the twentieth century to devalue drawing ethical conclusions from empirical observation -- i.e. by moving from what is (facts that are observed) to what ought (morality). Moore felt that ethics should be intuitive, not inferred -- therefore he presumably favored deontological ethics over teleological ethics. Practical ethicists find this constraint unnaturally crippling as it prevents them making a value judgement.

A moral compulsion for ethical action, sometimes usefully distinguished from a duty by its derivation from example or external enforcement. According to this distinction, obligations are derived chiefly from the considerations of teleological ethics and utilitarian ethics, with duties derived from considerations of deontological ethics.

The use of somatic cell nuclear transfer or embryo splitting to secure pregnancy and a new individual intended to be virtually genetically identical to the person who donated the cell nucleus used or genetically identical to siblings resulting from embryo splitting (which in effect is the intentional creation of identical twins, or triplets etc.). Practiced in animals, especially farm animals. Considered ethically abhorrent because of strong ethical arguments within the fields of deontological ethics (including a duty not to intentionally violate the biological principle of sexual reproduction involving genetic reassortment and individual difference), teleological ethics (including the very high risk of severe birth defects with SCNT) and utilitarian ethics (where arguments are based on considerations by and for society generally).

If fertilisation is the 'marriage' between egg and sperm then syngamy is its 'consummation', as the male and female pronuclei come together for the respective haploid sets of chromosomes to combine into a diploid set. An event of legislative importance in the conservative Australian state of Victoria, after which permission for embryo research becomes much harder to obtain, whatever the views of the couple concerned or an ethics committee might be.