Medicina Fluminensis, Vol. 44 No. 2, 2008.
Review article
Bioethics in Latin-America: some challenging questions for the present and future
Leo Pessini
; Pontifical Faculty of Theology Our Lady of Assumption (Archidiocese of São Paulo). Saint Camillus University Center, São Paulo, Brazil
Abstract
The aim of this article is to present some challenging questions which bioethics has to face in the region of Latin America. At it’s beginning in the USA in 1970s bioethics had to deal with new ethical dilemmas created by the fantastic progress of science and technology which generated new discoveries related with human life. Today, the new concepts of death, the beginning of the era of transplantation (kidney, heart and liver), and scandals concerning research on human beings fostered the emergency of the principlism paradigm. When bioethics was founded in Latin America it first followed the bioethical principles which already existed in the USA. Only in the mid-90s has the Latin America started to build its own identity when it began to address some of the key ethical issues related to its own socio-political and cultural reality. We identified five problems: 1) Broadening the ethical reflection from the “micro” to the “macro” level; 2) Accepting the cultural differences between Anglo - Saxon and Latin cultures; 3) The challenge to develop a horizon of meaning for bioethics; 4) Going beyond principles; 5) Consider justice and equity in the health care area as one of it’s key ethical references; and finally 6) To establish a respectful dialogue between bioethics and religious values.
Keywords
bioethics; cultural differences; Latin America
Hrčak ID:
26834
URI
Publication date:
1.9.2008.
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