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

Within the current discussions on immunization practices, Human Papillomavirus (HPV) made various challenges from bioethics: firstly, there are controversies regarding the efficacy and safety profile of marketed vaccines, and with respect to their cost-effectiveness. Around the discussion is evident in empirical studies that the informed consent process does not provide the necessary elements for the patients and their legal representatives can participate meaningfully in the process of making decisions about vaccination. This article presents an overview of the status of the issue, with an analysis from bioethics from the principle of proportionality and the deliberative syncretic method and suggests some input to optimize the process of informed consent for the HPV vaccine.

The search for IVF efficacy leads to a higher embryo production than it is necessary for implantation; this results in an excess of embryos which are kept frozen. This amount of frozen embryos inevitably increases. The donation/adoption are among the possible solutions for these frozen embryos. However, this practice has objective ethical problems. This article considers the ethical aspects of the donation/adoption of frozen human embryos from the point of view of moral philosophy, from what we could call "secular ethics" and from two monotheistic religions: Muslim and Jewish.

In February 2015 the United Kingdom took the first step towards the adoption of mitochondrial transfer as a therapeutic technique. Theoretically, it will make it possible for many women to get rid of pathologies associated with mitochondrial defects. However, this practice has been subjected to severe doubts from an ethical standpoint. Among these objections, we could highlight the following: its close association with human cloning; the alteration of the germline genes; the modification in the identity of the human being involved; the destruction of human embryos; or the high risk to the health of the human being. In this text we will analyze these objections critically, highlighting the strength of all of them. As a result, we will call for a careful restriction of the use of this technique, and the promotion of the use of alternative options much more respectful of the human future.

Psychoanalysis and neuroethics are concerned with ethical issues arising in the application of techniques and technologies stemming from the sciences of the mind. There is considerable overlap between the topics covered in neuroethics and in conceptual issues with which psychoanalists have long been concerned. Relying on a biologistic perspective, whereby only what is biological is real, neuroehtics offers a vision of ethics that limits the significance of the unique psychoanalytic concern: the understanding of unconscious meanings and the role of discourse in discerning and justifying these meanings. Neurethics has been leading ethics toward an appreciation of the sensory, the physical, the visual, at the expense of psychological meaning, the psychic dimension of human existence.

Mitochondrial diseases are a clinically heterogeneous group of disorders with variable clinical features and high morbidity and mortality. As there are different hereditary patterns, complex implications in reproduction are expected; the recurrence risk may be about 25% in autosomal recessive inheritance, 4% in de novo mitochondrial mutations, and an uncertain, but high risk, when the mother is carrier of mitochondrial mutations. Thus, different preimplantation and prenatal diagnosis or assisted reproductive techniques are proposed to avoid the birth of children with these diseases. In this paper scientific and ethical implications of new assisted reproductive techniques offer to high risk families are describe and analyzed.

John Stuart Mill didn’t take his life; but he could have done it. If he had done it, when he was twenty (as he planned), we would never have known what he thought about it. But he didn’t. And many years later he wrote about nature, God, religion and autonomy. My aim in this article is to show how his thoughts about nature and theism affect in fact his stance about autonomy to commit suicide.

Objective: To explore attitudes towards conscientious objections among podiatrists students in Spain. Methods: Podiatrists students at University of A Coruña, King Rey Juan Carlos University, University of Sevilla and Complutense University of Madrid were emailed a link to complete an anonymous online questionnaire, hosted by an online survey company. A total of 432 podiatrists students responded. Results: Nearly half of the students in this survey stated that they believed in the right of podiatrist to conscientiously object to any procedure. Demand for the right to conscientiously object is greater in Roman Catholic podiatrists students when compared with other groups of religious podiatrists students. Discussion: Examining patients and podiatric treatments continues to be controversy issues among podiatrists students and this may contribute to the looming crisis in podiatry services over next years. This project sheds some light on how future podiatrist view some of their ethical rights and obligations. Using empirical evidence, it reveals that conscientious objection is an issue in the Spain podiatrists student body today. These data could help anticipate problems that may arise when these podiatrists students qualify and practice podiatry in the community. Conclusion: Clearer guidance is needed for podiatrists students about the issue of conscientious objection at podiatry school.

Health´s judicialization is a recent phenomenon in Brazil, with serious repercussions for the Brazilian public health system. The aim of this work was to study its occurrence in thirteen small towns in the Midwest of Santa Catarina, southern Brazil, in the period of 2007-2012, analyze bioethical issues related and propose solutions. The results showed that, in this period, the total value/year of lawsuits by drugs increased almost 10 times, benefiting only 175 patients, or 0.134% of 129,497 inhabitants, at a cost of R$ 1.484.389,92 (US$ 740,000). Therefore, it can be inferred that the principle of autonomy of these patients and physician, committed, intensely, the equity and fair distribution of the scarce resources. It was concluded that this phenomenon, in the study area, has many features similar with those of large urban centers, has been unfair from the point of view of bioethical principles and also that the implementation of an Intermunicipal Committee of Bioethics could act as a mentor and educator in the careful definition of autonomy, fairness and justice in the allocation of scarce resources of health. Further studies are needed to assess the consequences of health´s judicialization nationally and find solutions more ethically appropriate.

This article relates bioethics and psychiatric disabilities. Through interviews with professional teams that representing the unit of analysis, describe the objectives of existing bioethical considerations in interventions for people with psychiatric disabilities are plotted, hoping to contribute a bioethical approach for optimizing these attentions. The research was conducted in the three Day Hospitals in the Maule Region -devices which accord preferential treatment to people with chronic psychiatric disorders- through a qualitative, exploratory and descriptive study. During the course of the study is possible to appreciate that our country is necessary to implement health care models that integrate a pragmatic concepts of justice and fairness as transverse, strongly on their own mental health care, given the particular vulnerability of those users and users; for example, through the development of a community and social bioethics. Finally, it is expected that from this work can generate lines of research that contribute to the progress in improving the quality of care for people with psychiatric disabilities.

Research and research ethics (RE) capacity is a key element for addressing health priorities of low - and middle-income countries (LMICs). With support from a NIH/FIC Research Ethics Education and Curriculum Development grant, a RE Training of Trainers (TOT) was implemented in Bolivia. The Steering Committee, including representatives from four Bolivian universities and PAHO, developed the RE TOT that included face-to-face, online and practicum components. Twenty trainees including faculty, researchers and community leaders participated. Pre/Posttest results demonstrated significant increases in overall RE knowledge (13.1% improvement, p-value < 0.0001). An evaluation demonstrated participants valued participatory learning strategies and the flexibility of the online component. TOT participants during the practicum component delivered RE workshops to their university and civil society communities in four regions (n= 3,700 people). The goals of the grant were accomplished through the development of a Steering Committee and implementation of the TOT course. Next steps include the design and implementation of a master’s level research ethics education program in Bolivia.