In the 21st Century Classroom, there has been a growing emphasis on teaching Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, also known as “STEM.” One of these components, Engineering, is the field that focuses on the creation of new technologies and objects, ranging from machines & buildings to skin, using scientific and design principles. Biomedical Engineering, also often referred to as BME, is a subset of Engineering. The focus of Biomedical Engineering is to utilize engineering practices of innovation and design to improve or enhance biology and medicine. Biomedical Engineering is tied closely with the medical field, as BME designs diagnostic therapies and treatments for issues that arise with the human body and creating solutions to gaps in the medical field.
From stethoscopes and scalpels, to doppler ultrasounds and artificial skin, you can thank a Biomedical Engineer for these innovations. As Dr. Street states in Introduction to Biomedical Engineering Technology, “the history of medicine is a story of humans trying to better understand and treat the various diseases and injuries that befell themselves and their companions” (Street, L. 2011). As medicine continues to change and advance, so does Biomedical Engineering, and often these medical advances are directly caused by the new technologies created from BME.
An important aspect of this field is considering the negative and positive implications of these technologies. One example of negative downstream effects of an introduction of technology is the use of ultrasound to change the sex ratio. Ultrasound became a technology that began as a tool for location and navigation inside the body and turned into a way that women could understand and better connect with their future baby while it was still in the womb. Ultrasound ultimately opened the door for identifying the sex of a baby before birth. Unfortunately, when the one child policy was passed in China it became used to determine the sex, and more unfavorable female fetuses were not wanted. Therefore, ultrasound’s original creator “could have hardly guessed that ultrasound would one day contribute to a sex ratio imbalance involving over 160 million "missing" females in Asia and elsewhere” (Hvistendahl. 2011.). However, the stronger question, often not asked, is could he have really “hardly guessed” that this would occur? To what extent should or could the original designers and engineers have foreseen ultrasounds possible negative implications as well as its positive ones, and ultimately be held responsible for not only the positive benefits to society but also the negative implications too? The topic of ethics and future planning continue to be debated and the role of responsibility and protection of technologies is spreading far past what it can simply do to benefit society, but also what negative implications may come.
