Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

Early life experiences can make an important impact in the architecture of the infant's brain, which can strengthen or weaken it permanently. The childhood psychological symptomatology is not fleeting, so early intervention involves direct social and economic benefits. This paper offers, based on the most recent findings, the addition of new Health Care Guarantees specifically aimed to treating mental pathologies in childhood. This public policy has been shown to be highly efficient and capable to make a real contribution to the reduction of both, the costs associated with Mental Health and the equity gaps in child health care.

For centuries, the understanding of conciousness has been one of the topic issues of intellectual development, and a context in which the different sociocultural, scientific, philosophical and ideological perceptions of the human being have been defined and redefined. Far from being a solved problem, it’s a theme that, reformulated again and again in different fields and contexts, returns endlessly to the epicenter of intellectual discussion because it has, necessarily, trascendental epistemic and ethical consequences. This paper tries to show how such confrontation and its positions are fed by an “outdated” perception of the problem, when faced it from an essentialist perspective (encrypted on a model of thought based on reason-object schemes). Therefore is proposed a reformulation of the question in procedural terms inspired by the theory of systemic emergentism. So, it is intended to provide an overcoming approach to an intellectual model that is considered obsolete, while fostering an ethical reflection on the ideological intellectual consequences and practices derived from its artificial support in the field of Science.

Purpose: To estimate the influence of clinical and demographical information in the understanding of cataract surgery informed consent, identifying less understandable areas. To assess informed consent document concept. Methods: Multiple-choice questionnaire was designed to collect information and to evaluate the understanding of cataract surgery and informed consent. An ordinary regression model was adjusted to express the effect of clinical and demographic variables to the questionnaire score. Results: The study comprised 180 patients. Sex (female, p=0.404), non-ophthalmologist source of information (p=0.397), previous surgical history (p=0.571), not having a companion (p=0.396) nor the days since the signing of informed consent form (p=0.535) had no influence in the understanding of cataract surgery informed consent. Age (r=-0.083, p

This article reviews ethical reflections about genetic research and genetic manipulation published in 20 years of Acta Bioethica. The following relevant topics are identified in bioethics dialogue: risks evaluation, inequity, loss of biodiversity, eugenics, definition of limits between artificial and natural, dialogue between detractors and promoters of biotechnology, challenges in health care, information and confidentiality management. Reflections consider that bioethics can act as mediator among diverse stakeholders affronting the problems that arise when applying technology to life, allowing to recognize and to reach consensus for solving differences in equity, autonomy and the balance of risks and benefices. The reflections in Acta Bioethica are similar to those of other journals, but with emphasis in the Latin American region. In twenty years of reflection, the challenges are similar, but the emphasis is changing from preventing to the avoidance of actual risks of genetic modifications, which demands regulation of genetic engineering, taking into account that it is more effective than before. Among the benefits, genomic medicine has always generated more expectations than actual therapy with problems in demonstrating efficacy in clinical trials. With the new technique of genomic edition, there are even more expectations for enhancing therapeutic approaches, but worries increase about using genetic modifications without therapeutic aim and interventions that affect the social and ecological equilibrium.

As declared by the United Nations, 2019 is the International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements. Accordingly, an innovative new Periodic Table of Chemical Elements and Ethics [PETE] has been developed as an educational tool for secondary and university STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education. The tool is designed to be used in a case-based approache that is feasible to both individual and small group learners. Specifically, with the new periodic table, STEM becomes aligned with STSE (Science and Technology on Society and Environment), laying a curricular pathway for integrating discussions of ethics into the teaching of chemistry. Presented is the table, as well as sources for pairable ethics cases, and guidance for teachers to create curriculum which facilitates connections between ethics, chemistry, and society.

Biometrics has had a rapid expansion as a technology, being increasingly accessible to the public, and lending utility to governments and society in the management of citizen security. It is applied either for verification or for identification of an individual's identity and technically constitutes a problem of pattern recognition. In Chile, the existing legal framework regarding the handling of personal data does not include specific biometrics in its regulation. A new bill that considers both biometric data and Biological profiles is in process. In addition, we revised the international reports of the last two decades that analyze the use of biometrics. The primary focus of concern of these documents, from the ethical point of view, is the right to privacy of individuals, giving practical guidance and discussion regarding the elements necessary for the application of these novel technologies in an appropriate ethically manner. Finally, we contextualize from a brief analysis of biopolitics the role of biometrics and the basic ethical requirements for its development in that framework.