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. 2022 May 4;17(1):9.
doi: 10.1186/s13010-022-00121-5.

Entropy as the main justification for research in medical ethics

Alban Zarzavadjian Le Bian  1   2 , Louis Pantel  3 , Christophe Tresallet  3 , Marie-France Mamzer  4
Affiliations

Entropy as the main justification for research in medical ethics

Alban Zarzavadjian Le Bian et al. Philos Ethics Humanit Med. .

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.

Keywords: Medical ethics; Research in medical ethics; Surgery.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no competing interest to declare regarding this manuscript.