Medical Technology Laws & Bioethics

Medical Technology Laws and Ethics tackled not only the laws and moral values related to the profession of Medical Laboratory Science (MLS) but also its history. The history of MLS began in 1550 B.C where Vivian Herrick mentioned the intestinal parasites and taenia in writings. To support the opinion of Herrick that the profession was being practiced on early days Prof. M. Ruth Williams wrote a book entitled “The profession of Medical Technology” which discussed the practiced during the Medieval Period, in which the doctors based the appearance of the urine in diagnosing the patients illness. In 14th century at the University of Bologna Mondino de’ Liuzzi hired Alessandra Giliani to perform some test which is now considered as the task of medical technologist. Unfortunately Giliani died from the acquired disease from the laboratory.

In the Philippines, the history of the profession began when the first laboratory opened at 208 Quiricada St., Sta. Cruz Manila where the Manila Public Health Laboratory is presently located. The said laboratory was introduced by the 26th Medical Laboratory of 6th United States Army Brigade at the end of World War II. In 1944 the training of the high school graduates to be a medical technician was began. However in 1945 the Medical Laboratory of the 6th United States Army left the laboratory and only Dr. Alfredo Pio de Roda save the remnants of the said laboratory and start the training. However the training did not last long since the Manila Sanitarium and Hospital started to offer the Medical technology course through the efforts of Mrs. Willa Hilgert Hedrick (considered as the Founder of Medical Technology Education in the Philippines)

As the years goes by, the said profession begins to develop and improve. The first organization build for all medical technology here in the Philippines, the Philippine Association of Medical Technologist (PAMET). It was organized by Mr. Crisanto Gomez Almario (Father of the PAMET). The first president of PAMET is Mr.Charlemagne Tamondong which titled as the Emergence of the profession. Followed by Mr. Nardito Moraleta (Professional recognition) then Felix Asprer (Legistative agenda), Bernardo Tabaosares (celebration of the profession), Angelina Jose as the first female president of the PAMET and others.

The Presidents of the PAMET together with the different association and those who are registered medical technologist participated to improved the laws related to the Medical Technology profession. The first is Republic act No. 5527 which is an act on requiring the registration of medical technologist defining their practice and purposes. It tackles mainly the Medical technology profession as the program which include thirty two sections and it was approved by Ferdinand E. Marcos on June 21, 1969 it is also already amended as the R.A no. 6138, Presidential Decree no. 498 and PD no. 1534. And other ACT’s which is very useful for the program.