International Bioethics Committee

Specialized

Topic A

Privacy Issues of Collecting Information for Big Data Projects

The development of modern computing technologies has revolutionized data collection, storage and movement. Within the realms of healthcare, this has translated into digitizing patient healthcare records, as well as storage on the “cloud,” enabling the sharing of such information between the patient, healthcare providers and insurance companies.

Furthermore, development of the Internet of Things (IoT) has led to the creation of devices such as connected health trackers, apps and wearables, for example, the Fitbit which generate a multitude of metrics related to healthcare, such as fitness activity, sleep patterns, heart rate patterns. These metrics are then stored in servers around the world and processed through algorithms to generate usable information.

Backgrounder
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Topic B

Right of Choice for
Unresponsive Patients

The advancement of medical technology has allowed patients to attain an unprecedented level of control over their medical care. Patients of the 21st century not only have access to an ever-growing range of options for medical treatment, but also the right to refuse life-sustaining treatment. This control, however, becomes disputed when patients enter an unresponsive state.

An unresponsive state – which encompasses vegetative states, brain death, and comas – renders patients incapable of dictating the course of their medical treatment. Patients in such a state typically have severe neurological damage, which results in their organs functioning, but only through the assistance of automated devices. As such, the right of choice falls into the hands of the patient's immediate family; the family, or a legal trustee, gets to decide whether treatment should continue, in hopes of the patient’s eventual return to a conscious state, or if treatment should be withdrawn and the patient’s organs could then be donated.

Backgrounder
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ibc@pacificmun.org

Dais team

Jessica Lin

Director

Jesse Hsieh

Chair

About

IBC

Director

Jessica Lin

Jessica is currently a Grade 11 student at Crofton House School and is ecstatic to chair IBC at PacificMUN 2019. Since walking into her first committee session in Grade 8, in which she did not raise her placard a single time, Jessica has grown to love the diplomacy, debate, and collaboration that Model UN entails. A few years later, Jessica has finally found the courage to raise her placard (she has occasionally even been told to raise her placard a little less.) Outside of MUN, Jessica can regularly be found binge watching Suits, fretting over standardized tests, playing basketball, or volunteering throughout Vancouver. Jessica looks forward to witnessing a weekend of lively debate and fruitful discussion; she wishes all delegates the best of luck at PacificMUN 2019.

Chair

Jesse Hsieh

Jesse is currently a Grade 12 at Steveston-London Secondary School, and is looking forward to serving as your chair for the International Bioethics Committee at PacificMUN 2019! Joining MUN in his Grade 10 year, his passions for history and politics have only continued to develop. Remembering the moments where nations voted to nuke the world to oblivion and where corrupt government officials secretly plotted to assassinate presidents, he will never forget the wonderful experiences MUN has provided for him. Outside of school, you can find him organizing events for his school and his community, procrastinating when he should be studying, and sleeping away all his stress. Jesse looks forward to the fascinating discussions delegates will undoubtedly debate over the course of the conference, and wishes all delegates a most wonderful experience.