UNESCO/IUBS/EUBIOS BIOETHICS DICTIONARY - "O"s

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OBESITY: (Latin: obesitas 'fatness') An abnormal increase in the number and/or size of fat cells in the adipose tissues mass. Most children with excess fatness do not have an endocrine (hormonal) disorder. If they become obese during the phase of infant growth, which is determined by nutrition, they will not only be fat but also tall for the family. All of the endocrine causes of obesity are associated with a diminished growth-rate and short stature. The child who is short and fat or the child who has an intellectual problem and fatness may well have an endocrine disorder in which case detailed investigation is needed. (see ANOREXIA NERVOSA; BULIMIA NERVOSA) (IP)

OBJECTIVITY: See SUBJECTIVITY.

OBLIGATION: the act of binding by a social, legal or ethical tie; such a duty, contract, promise, or any other requirement that compels one to follow or avoid a certain course of action. In ethics - general moral considerations, in bioethics obligation to autonomy, beneficence, non-malficence, justice and confidentiality. (IP)

OBSENITY: One hears that "pornography (q.v.) is a function of geography". What is accepted in one location or society is shocking in an other. The same can be said of obsenity. And time is surely another factor. Words which used to be considered obsene are now quite acceptable, even among quite conservative people. But it does seem that some language is absolutely, and not just relatively obsene.  This would be, for example, any gross insult of an individual human, which emotionally hurts the insulted person. (FL)  
     
OBSTACLE: See PROBLEM.

OBSTETRICS: The branch of medicine dealing with the management of pregnancy and childbirth. (see GYNOCOLOGY) (DM)

OBVIOUSNESS: Obviousness is one of the criteria used in the evaluation of patent applications. Obviousness addresses the degree of difference between the invention being evaluated and that is already known and available. (DM)

OCEAN POWER: Forms of ocean power include tidal energy, wave power, current power and thermal energy conversion. The potential energy of the oceans is enormous, but there are technological difficulties in harnessing this power for human use. (See TIDAL ENERGY, WAVE POWER, RENEWABLE ENERGY) (MP)

OCCIDENTAL: (Latin: occidere "to fall" in reference to the setting sun). "Occident" is a formal literary term for West, and Occidental culture, or the Occident, refers to Western civilization based around Europe and North America. (See WESTERN CIVILIZATION, ORIENTAL) (MP)

OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE: Exposure to potentially harmful chemical, physical, or biological agents that occurs as a result of one's occupation. (DM)

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH: The health of employees working in different occupation faces different risks to persons health. (DM)

OCCUPATIONAL MEDICINE: The branch of medicine concerned with the promotion and maintenance of the physical and mental health of employees in an occupational setting. (DM)

OCCUPIER FOR HANDLING WASTES: Any person/s or company that generates Hazardous waste substance that are specified by a competent authority who shall ensure that all such wastes are carefully and properly handled and disposed off without any adverse effects to those who handle the waste disposal or to the environment. and has the responsibility for their proper collection, reception, treatment, storage and disposal either by a facility or through personal arrangement. (JA)

OCKHAM’S RAZOR: A loose principle of science closely related to ‘parsimony’, stating that assumptions should be minimized and simplified. Named for the philosophical ideas of William Ockham (1285-1347), Ockham’s Razor cuts away unnecessarily complicated theories and identifies those with simplicity of theory construction. (See PARSIMONY, SIMPLICITY) (MP)

OECD: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

OIKOS: Greek word meaning "house" or dwelling place. Is the key concept describing disciplines such as ecology, economics and ecumenics. (IP)

OLD TESTAMENT: Sacred literature of Judaism and Christianity, also known as 'Jewish Scriptures' or 'Hebrew Bible', composed in Hebrew (some parts Aramaic), and fixed around 100 ACE after a long oral tradition. The Old Testament includes the first five books Genesis to Deuteronomy, which as a unity comprise the Torah or Pentateuch. The Old Testament chronicles the histories of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon and other holy figures and sons and daughters of Israel, and suggestions for moral conduct such as the Ten Commandments. (See NEW TESTAMENT, TORAH, BIBLE, JUDEO-CHRISTIAN) (MP)

OLFACTION: (Latin olfacere 'to smell'). The sense of smell. The nose has a dual function - respiration and the sense of smell. The sensory nerves of smell have their origins in special cells in the mucous membrane of the roof of the nose. On each side of the nasal septum nerve fibers from these cells pass to the olfactory bulb - the area in the forebrain where the olfactory nerves terminate and the olfactory tracts arise. Nerve fibers form the olfactory tract (first cranial nerve) pass backwards to the olfactory area in the temporal lobe of the cerebral cortex where the impulses are interpreted and odor perceived. All odorous materials give off chemical particles that are carried into the nose with the inhaled air and stimulate the nerve cells of the olfactory region. 'Sniffing' concentrates more particles more quickly in the roof of the nose thus increasing the number of special cells stimulated and the perception of smell. The sense of smell in humans is generally less acute than in other mammals. (See ANOSMIA, SENSES) (IP)

OLIGONUCLEOTIDE: Synthetic short DNA fragment used in molecular biology techniques, either for amplifying DNA (in PCR reactions) or for visualizing a complementary sequence in native DNA, cDNA or RNA (in dot or slot blot hybridizations). (GK)

OLIGOSPERMIA: Scarcity of sperm in the semen.

OMEGA POINT THEORY: An audacious scientific proposal by cosmologist Frank Tipler, founded in work by J.B.S. Haldane, John Bernal, Paul Dirac, Freeman Dyson and Teilhard de Chardin. The Omega Point is the singularity at the boundary of all future time in a closed universe. At this point, Tipler argues that the cosmological laws of physics imply that humans and all life will be resurrected into mathematically-defined states of omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence - a fate remarkably similar to that proposed by major religious eschatology and theology. Including an extensive mathematical appendix for scientists, his popular ‘ Physics of Immortality’ asserts “that theology is a branch of physics, that physicists can infer the existence of God and the resurrection of the dead to eternal life… I am quite serious. But I am as surprised as the reader. When I began my career as a cosmologist some twenty years ago, I was a convinced atheist… I have been forced into these conclusions by the inexorable logic of my special branch of physics.” (See ESCHATOLOGY, SINGULARITY, ANTHROPIC PRINCIPLE, HOLOGRAPHIC UNIVERSE THEORY, PARALLEL UNIVERSES THEORY) (MP)

ONCOGENE: A gene, one or more forms of which is associated with cancer. Many oncogenes are involved, directly or indirectly, in controlling the rate of cell growth. (DM)

ONCOLOGY: A study involving the formation of tumors and cancer cell formation. (JA)

ONCOMOUSE: Strain of mice genetically engineered to be more susceptible to cancers. The original oncomouse was developed at Harvard Medical School and patented in 1988. It soon became something of a cause célèbre as campaigners, particularly in Europe, argued that it was morally repugnant to design an animal to be likely to develop cancer. Those in favour of the existence of oncomice tend to argue on utilitarian grounds that the strains when used in research might well be beneficial to humans. (MR)

ONTOGENY: (Greek: ont- "being" + geny "birth") The sequence and course of development during the life of an individual organism. (See PHYLOGENY) (MP)

ONTOLOGICAL: Refers to actual existence in reality as distinct from in thought or in the imagination. (DM)

ONTOLOGY: (Greek ont- "being" + logos "discourse" or "reason") The branch of metaphysics concerned with being, or existence. (MP)

OOCYTE: The immature female germ cell. It is called an ovum when it matures after the penetration of the sperm during fertilization and the completion of the second meiotic division. (DM+IP)

OPEC: Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

OPEN ACCESS: A system in which resources are available to everyone. (See TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS) (MP)

OPEN QUESTIONS: 1. Questions without an answer, open to anyone’s opinion. 2. Questions which trigger thinking because they have a lot of latitude available for the answer, such  as ‘And?’, ‘Therefore?’, “Why?’, ‘How?’ and sometimes ‘What?’. (See CLOSED QUESTIONS) (MP)

OPERANT CONDITIONING: Modification of behavior through the use of positive and/or negative reinforcement. (DM)

OPERATING SYSTEM: Computers: the software platform upon which computer applications and the user interface are based, for example DOS, Windows or Linux for PCs, Unix for Internet servers, and recently TinyOS for small networked microprocessors like ‘smart dust’. (See INTERNET, SMART DUST) (MP)

OPHTHALMOLOGY: The branch of medicine concerned with the eye, its diseases, and refractive errors. (DM)

OPPORTUNITY: See OPPORTUNITY COST.

OPPORTUNITY COST: The value of foregone opportunities or alternatives unable to be achieved because of time or money towards some other option. Examples include the opportunity cost of excessive military spending and the opportunity costs of being a couch potato in front of the TV. (See ALTERNATIVES, EXTERNALITIES) (MP)

OPPOSABLE THUMB: One of the fundamental evolutionary adaptations setting human ancestors apart from other animals, the opposable thumb (able to oppose each other finger, grip, pinch and precisely manoeuvre objects in the hand) enabled the early development and extensive use of tools. (MP)

OPTICAL DATING: Relies on quartz timing which depends on the counting of electrons trapped by naturally-occurring mechanical forces in the mineral of interest. These electrons are trapped at a regular rate and are released by the sunlight’s  energy (zero time) eing directly proportierstanding. (see THERMOLUMINESCENCE DATING AND RADIOCARBON DATING) (IP)

OPTIMIZATION: The process in decision-making in which the "optimal" or best solution is arrived at through analytical comparison of the alternative courses of action. Management models are often designed in order to optimize certain factors unfortunately more commonly economic measures than social or environmental outcomes. (See OPTIMAL SUSTAINABLE YIELD, SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS) (MP)

OPTIMUM SUSTAINABLE YIELD: The concept of ‘maximum sustainable yield’ has given way to ‘optimum sustainable yield’. This is a management anithout being depleted. ‘Optimum’ does not imply ‘best’ in an economic sense, but a generally lower ‘safe’ levry principle. (See SUSTAINABLE YIELD, MAXIMUM SUSTAINABLE YIELD, CARRYING CAPACITY, THRESHOLD MANAGEMENT, PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE, UNCERTAINTY) (MP)

OPTIMISM: See PESSIMISM.

OPTION VALUE: The willingness to pay for the preservation of ecosystems and nature in order to retain the potential option of perhaps visiting or utilizing them at a later date. (See INTRINSIC VALUE OF NATURE, INSTRUMENTAL VALUE OF NATURE, BEQUEST VALUE, USE VALUE, ENVIRONMENTAL VALUATION) (MP)

ORDER: 1. A command, instruction or task allocation from a superior such as a corporate boss, policeperson or military officer. The assumption of unquestioning compliance may imply the loss of individual thought or freedom of action, denying the subordinate the right behave in accordance with their own ethical principles.  2. The level of taxonomic classification of organisms below the class, and containing one or more families. For example, primates and rodents are orders within the class Mammalia. (See SPECIES, TAXONOMY) (MP)

ORGAN: (Greek: organon "tool", from ergon "work") The structural and functional unit of the body, an organ is any well-defined body part consisting of fully differentiated specialist cells and adapted to a certain biological purpose (e.g. brain, liver, skin). 2. Informally, "organ" may refer to the penis. (MP)

ORGAN DONATION: Donation of body organs with the intention that they be replaced into the body of another. The donation of some organs can come from living donors while for many organs it is possible only after death. (See BRAIN DEATH, ORGAN TRANSPLANTATION).(DM)

ORGAN TRANSPLANTATION: Surgery of removing a solid organ /tissue or partial detachment of a part of the body and implantation of the same organ in a different region of the same body or different individual. Four types: Autograft - using one's own tissue for grafting, e.g. A cock's claw transplanted to its comb region; Isograft, Syngeneic graft. Existence of genetic identity between the donor and recipient; Allograft, also termed homograft, the donor and the recipient are members of the same species. Xenograft,  also termed as heterograft (Hetero = other than self) , the donor and recipient are of different unrelated species E.g. Human and Pig. (See XENOTRANSPLANTATION. (JA)

ORGANELLE: A structure in the cytoplasm of a cell that is specialized in its ultrastructure and biochemical composition to serve a particular function (e.g. mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum, chloroplast). (DM)

ORGANIC CHEMISTRY: A major branch of chemistry which investigates carbon compounds. Carbon has the ability to bond covalently with itself, as well as with other molecules like hydrogen, oxygen or nitrogen, to form varied and extensive branched chains or rings. Carbon compounds are fundamental to all currently existing earthly life, but not restricted to living matter as believed in the nineteenth century when the term "organic chemistry" was coined. Conversely, it is theoretically possible that not all life must be based on organic chemistry. "Carbon chemistry" is perhaps a more technically accurate alternative. (See BIOCHEMISTRY, LIFE) (MP)

ORGANIC COMPUTER: See MOLECULAR COMPUTER.

ORGANIC FARMING: Agriculture without use of artificial pesticides, chemical fertilizers, artificial hormones, or, according to some, genetically modified organisms. In some countries or districts, what food may be labeled as organic is regulated by statute. Farming of organically grown foods usually attempts to minimize human additives. (See PERMACULTURE) (RW+MP)

ORGANISM: A living being. (RW)

ORGANIZATIONAL POLICIES: Positions on issues taken by groups such as professional and voluntary health associations. (DM)

ORGANOGENESIS: See EMBRYONIC PERIOD.

ORGANOIDS: Artificial matrices  are being made to perform the functions of organs, such as for release of hormones in the body. Usually living cells will be enclosed within the matrix.  (DM)

ORGANOPHOSPHATES: Phosphorus-based pesticides which, like the chlorinated hydrocarbons, are dangerous and persistent organic pollutants. (See PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS, CHLORINATED HYDROCARBONS) (MP)

ORGASM: (Greek organ to grow or swell) the climax of sexual excitement and pleasure during which ejaculation occurs in the male and vaginal contractions in the female. The female orgasm may be repeated several times if stimulation is continued. (IP)

ORGY: (Greek: orgia "secret rites", from ergon "work") An orgy is a no-holds-barred sexual party involving casual interaction and intercourse between multiple partners in a group setting, usually with food and perhaps intoxicants such as wine. Relatively rare today because of modern taboos, the orgy is considered by some as an example of the decadence and self-indulgence which may have contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire. Nevertheless, there is nothing bioethically wrong with honest sexual indulgence so long as all participants and their primary partners are consenting. (See SWINGING, OPEN MARRIAGE) (MP)

ORIENTAL: (Latin: oriens "rising" in reference to the dawn sun) "Orient" is a poetic term for East, as well as the act of aligning one’s own position with reference to the compass, surroundings or point of view. Oriental culture, or the Orient, refers to Asian philosophies and people, especially those of the "Far East". (See EASTERN PHILOSOPHY, OCCIDENTAL) (MP)

ORIGIN OF LIFE: The origin of life on Earth is still a mysterious and contentious issue. The majority of the world believes in creationism, the conscious design of life by God as described in religious texts such as the Bible. Creation may be interpreted as the design of currently-existing fully formed organisms, as an initial "setting loose" of early replicators to evolutionary forces, or as a process of constant creative co-existence with the world. Perhaps the most probable scientific theory is the "primeval soup" theory, first formulated by Russian biochemist A. I. Oparin in his 1936 The Origin of Life on Earth , and eloquently described in Richard Dawkins' Selfish Gene . Life may have evolved from the interaction of reducing hydrogen-rich gases of the atmosphere dissolved in primordial oceans of non-biologically produced organic chemistry. Under the action of lightning and ultraviolet radiation, simple molecules were transformed into the fundamental organic molecules of living matter. Evidence of such processes has been demonstrated under laboratory conditions, with scientists able to spontaneously create complex organic molecules in a test tube, including amino acids, pyrimidines and purines such as adenine, one of the four bases of the DNA molecule. Nucleic acids (DNA and RNA molecules) may constitute the best molecular mechanism for accurate intergenerational transmission, with replication mistakes in fewer than one base in 10⁸ -10¹² . The replicator is the basis of life, simply a molecule with the property of being able to create copies of itself using materials from the surrounding chemical soup. Once replicators begin competing with one another for such resources, the process of evolution by natural selection is sufficient to explain increasing complexity of these molecules up to and including modern organisms. Two other scientific theories for the origin of life are also worth mentioning. One is the "inorganic mineral" theory proposed by Graham Cairns-Smith in which the original replicating entities, clay-like crystals such as silicates, acted as a scaffold for the later emergence of DNA. Another possible theory is that the building blocks of life may have had extraterrestrial origin, arriving on Earth in ice from impacting comets. (See LIFE, EVOLUTION, CREATIONISM, NATURAL SELECTION, ALIEN LIFE, ARTIFICIAL LIFE) (MP & IP)

ORIGINAL SIN: A view in Christianity founded by Augustine, in which sin is held to be innate to all humankind. Inherited guilt and propensity to sin are carried through to all direct descendents of Adam and Eve, who ate from the tree of knowledge against divine command. (See SIN) (MP)

ORNAMENTAL PLANTS: Plants selected for their beauty or appearance rather than food. (DM)

ORNITHOLOGY: (Greek: ornis "bird" + logos "reason") The scientific study of birds and bird life. Ornithologists study the physiology, ecology, behavior and classification of birds. (MP)

OSMOSIS: The passage of water through a semi-permeable barrier such as a cell membrane. Water tends to flow from a hypotonic fluid (with low osmotic concentration) to hypertonic fluid (higher relative osmotic concentration) until an isotonic medium (equilibrium) is reached. (See MEMBRANE) (MP)

OTA: Office of Technology Assessment of the USA.

OUTER SPACE TREATY: Multilateral treaty signed in 1967 obliging nations not to place nuclear weapons into orbit. (See SPACE WARFARE, NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION, MISSILE DEFENSE) (MP)

OUTLIER: In statistics, a measurement which lies in an unusual or extreme location compared to the other measures in the data set. Sometimes outliers are assumed to be errors and removed, but in a few cases they may indicate extra information such as vagrant individuals outside of their ecological range. (See ERROR, NOISE) (MP)

OUTPATIENT COMMITMENT: Legally mandated outpatient treatment of the mentally ill. (DM)

OVARIES: Paired female sex glands in which ova are developed and stored and among many others the female steroid hormones estrogen and progesterone are produced. (DM)

OVERDEVELOPED NATIONS: Overdeveloped in this context means material development; excessive energy use, resource consumption, waste generation, and expenditure on damaging technologies. Overdeveloped nations waste their excess wealth, and feign unawareness of external misery. These countries should begin (and can afford) moves towards humanitarianism, philanthropy, environmental economics, deconsumerism and dematerialization. Material overdevelopment implies a certain philosophical under-development in terms of sustainability, peace, precaution, opportunity cost, biodiversity conservation, social equity, human rights, ethics and empathy. (See DEVELOPED NATIONS, FIRST WORLD, CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION, SUFFICIENCY, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, DEMILITARIZATION, DEMATERIALIZATION) (MP)

OVERSPECIALIZATION: See MULTIDISCIPLINARY, INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT.

OVERWORK: See WORKAHOLISM AND KAROSHI.

OVIDUCT: Fallopian tube.

OVUM (pl. ova): The female egg or oocyte, formed in an ovary.

OVUM DONOR: A woman who donates an ovum or ova to another woman.

OXYGEN: (See OZONE DEPLETION, RESPIRATION)

OXYMORON: Oxymoron is a strange word used to describe a self-contradictory phrase where the words making up the two halves are seemingly opposite, but still manage to make sense in combination. Typical examples include ‘sustainable development’, ‘military intelligence’, ‘smart bomb’. (See PARADOX, EUPHEMISM) (MP)

OZONE: (Greek: ozein 'to have an odor') A highly reactive form of oxygen consisting of three atoms, O ₃ . Ozone is formed naturally when oxygen is present in an electric discharge, as occurs in a lightning storm. Due to its high reactivity ozone is also used in many industrial processes as an oxidizing agent in bleaching, cleaning and related processes. In the troposphere, ozone reacts with other pollutants to produce smog and free radicals that damage the health of humans and other organisms. In the stratosphere, an ozone layer shields the Earth's surface from UV, which would otherwise damage DNA in living things. (See OZONE HOLE; STRATOSPHERE; TROPOSPHERE) (IP+RW)

OZONE HOLE: In common idiom describes human-driven stratospheric ozone layer depletion. The stratospheric ozone serves as a shield to absorb harmful ultraviolet radiation in the stratosphere, protecting living organisms on the Earth from the effects of excessive amounts of such radiation. Under normal equilibrium conditions, the quantity of ozone in the stratosphere is at steady-state levels resulting from balanced production and destruction. However, industrial activities have emitted a variety of atmospheric pollutants, especially chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), that have significantly accelerated the destruction of stratospheric ozone in Polar Regions with the consequent thinning of this protective shield. The most prominent instance of ozone layer destruction is the so-called Antarctic Ozone Hole, which refers to the region of the Antarctic stratosphere where ozone is depleted by 50 to 75% in winter and early spring. Increasing ground-level ultraviolet radiation seriously reduces photosynthetic production and causes other ill effects on organisms. (See OZONE, GREENHOUSE EFFECT). (IP+RW)

OZONE LAYER: See OZONE HOLE.

OZONE SHIELD: See OZONE HOLE.

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