Philosophy
One very common area of philosophy is ethics, which is extremely relevant to biomedical engineering and engineering in general. When you are designing solutions to problems, it is important to consider whether it is right or wrong to actually use the solution that you are designing. The field of ethics that is concerned with biology is called bioethics.
One common ethical consideration in biomedical engineering research is informed consent. How can you make sure that patients are fully aware of the risks of your experimental medical device? Patients have varying levels of education, so it is important that you are able to explain your research to all potential research subjects in a way that they can understand what you are doing without needing to be educated in the field.
Another common ethical consideration in biomedical engineering is in prosthetics and genetic engineering. Gene therapy could edit your genes to cure genetic conditions like sickle cell anemia and Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Is it ethical to edit non-deadly traits, for example to improve your memory or increase your muscle mass? Is it ethical for parents to edit the genes of their babies before they are even born? What if only the rich can afford these treatments, and these treatments then increase the disparities between the rich and the poor? Prosthetics help restore lost function, a common example being an artifical leg for a patient whose leg was amputated. Advanced bionic prosthetics could enhance human ability beyond the normal limits.
