Abandoned generations: vulnerable populations – the end of a cycle

In democratic elections that are repeated every five years, physicians chose their representatives on the Conselho Federal de Medicina - CFM (Brazilian Federal Council of Medicine) for the 2019-2024 mandate. From the 1^st October, when the new advisers take office, Revista Bioética will have a new Editor-in-Chief. With the autonomy granted to it by this CFM, the journal will continue to provide doctors, lecturers, students, researchers, and all those dedicated to bioethics, with the opportunity for updating, reflection, research, publication, teaching and learning.

Over the past five years, Revista Bioética has expanded to quarterly issues, publishing 20 articles in each issue, 80 papers per year, in three languages (portuguese, english, spanish), prioritizing research and fostering bioethical reflection in the social dimension.

Over 150 papers are submitted to the scrutiny of the editorial team per year, and we are proud to assure each of the authors that these manuscripts are accurately viewed. Aspects such as the existence of plagiarism; the checking or inclusion of keywords; revision of the abstracts and the text itself, as well as other aspects are seen, read and reread with all the dedication and care of the editorial team and the reviewers. This makes Revista Bioética the most recognized publication in Brazil today. To this end, it has increased its base of dedicated and skilled staff.

Revista Bioética has made progress in the classification of journals (2013-2016 period), in the assessment of the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Capes (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel). It began to be evaluated in new areas of knowledge, such as Education and Psychology, obtained improvements in the following fields of science: religion and theology, nursing, philosophy, psychology, public health, and sociology. The journal obtained the first classification in the field of education (B1), directly related to the distribution of the printed version of the journal to the libraries of higher education institutions and its use in the classroom in undergraduate and postgraduate courses. In addition, Revista Bioética has signed a cooperation agreement with the Bioethics Observatory of the University of Barcelona.

Although the results released by Capes are preliminary, part of the construction, process of the Qualis Reference (Qualis Referência), Revista Bioética (online) received an A2 rating in a preliminary list made available on the Internet ¹. This is an editorial achievement that makes us very happy, because it increases the visibility of bioethics in the academic scenario of our country, contributing to its consolidation as a field of knowledge.

These advances were only possible because today we have the participation of more than 300 reviewers among the editorial board and ad hoc reviewers who voluntarily contribute their expertise to the evaluation of the papers submitted.

As in all mandates, the magazine has fulfilled the responsibility it took over 25 years ago, increasing its national and international visibility and credibility. This recognition involves all those who fight for ethics, social justice and health through bioethical reflection. The quantity and quality of published research and update articles reflects the concerns of students, lecturers, researchers, editorial staff, and editors regarding the topic.

In this five-year period, the world has faced serious humanitarian, social and environmental issues, most of which are not new to humanity, such as the escape of families from the injustice of dictatorial regimes, of violence, hunger and cold, of war, of disease, that is, the escape from suffering and death. There has been an exponential increase in the number of refugees, risking their lives to avoid death, suffering from abandonment or non-acceptance by countries who are in better socioeconomic conditions.

Even when welcomed, they suffer from the loss of citizenship, identity and dignity, from separation and the breakup of families. Data from 2019, according to the UN Refugee Agency ², show 68.5 million refugees, of whom 52% are children and adolescents. The often promiscuous local conditions lead to violence and disease, threatening the epidemiological safety of the host country.

The “anti-vaccine movement” ³ threatens the world with vaccine-preventable diseases, demanding local and global strategies. The upsurge in diseases considered eradicated in many countries, such as measles and polio, and the low vaccination coverage, originate not only in this movement, but in several other factors, such as laxness due to the temporary absence of the disease, lack of adequate investment in public health and the lack of political will to solve the problem, as well as erroneous management models and corruption.

Unemployment, which affects 12.6 million people in our country ⁴, is a concern and threat to many other countries, including those considered developed. The speed of technological evolution in recent times, misconceptions in the production of food and consumer goods, as well as in the distribution of income and priority attention to the unemployed and their families, make it practically impossible to solve this serious obstacle to human development.

Increasingly more is produced by fewer workers. The unemployed and disadvantaged are addressed without defined strategies, with insufficient resources and attention, with visible incompetence, neglect and even irresponsibility.

The population of street children and adolescents, immortalized by Jorge Amado ⁵ in the novel “Capitães da areia” [Sand Captains], had also perpetuated a warning in Rio de Janeiro by columnist José Carlos Oliveira who, being a capixaba (a native from the State of Espírito Santo) who arrived in Rio de Janeiro at the age of 18, published an article a year later, in 1953, from which we highlight two paragraphs: Children, gentlemen, do not want to know about high politics. They are hungry and demand food, are homeless and demand a home, are abandoned and require assistance. Today they just lie down and shiver in the cold anywhere, but tomorrow they will be resentful men, if not utterly useless, incapable even of revolt, or forgiveness, or hatred. However, they are not to blame (...). Let us, at least, save the children. Make your demagoguery, honourable politicians, candidates for political office, say your foolish promises to a hundred microphones, deceive us adults. Fool us at will, but save the children. They are children, they do not vote, they do not complain, and, above all, they are blameless. May your folly bury this country more and more in chaos. Children should be saved. Children must be saved. Think for a moment about this, formulate a solution (and for God’s sake put it into practice!) and go in peace to eat your Christmas turkey ⁶.

The text was published in 1953, but almost nothing has been done, during the period of over half a century, to prevent future Brazilian citizens from being abandoned on the streets across the country. Health and life are on a path of perennial risk due to neglect of the environment, a crime committed by the rulers and also by part of society, who insist on ignoring, or not believing in, global warming and the imminent end of life on the planet as we know it.

On the other hand, there is a recognized reaction from representatives and society all over the world in order that this threat will not materialize, that violence will cease, that the hunger on this planet will be eradicated, and that the universal guideline should be ethics, education, health and solidarity.

Closing this cycle, with the satisfaction of a duty fulfilled, the editorial team announces a new phase for Revista Bioética. One stage, which, we believe, could take the journal to even higher flights, as the editorial published in commemoration of the 25^th anniversary of Revista Bioética cites: The position of Brazilian bioethics is firm and consensual in defense of the vulnerable (…). We live in a sad moment, full of risks and doubts, but which offers us a unique opportunity to formulate a new science: contemporary and indispensable; analytical, but formulating; complex, as it was from its origin, but accessible and indispensable; recognized and respected. We believe in the recovery of the Earth, the preservation of the health and life of our brothers and sisters, and the birth of a new era, that is scientific, analysed holistically (rather than in fragments), philosophical, technological, supportive, human and merciful ⁷.

Well then, let us continue our mission.

Sidnei Ferreira – General Editor

Referências

• ¹
  Revistas com Qualis “inflado” continuam superavaliadas em lista preliminar da Capes. Gazeta do Povo [Internet]. Educação; 19 jun 2019 [acesso 29 jul 2019]. Disponível: https://bit.ly/2lNIO5k
  » https://bit.ly/2lNIO5k
• ²
  ACNUR: 5 dados sobre refugiados que você precisa conhecer. Nações Unidas Brasil [Internet]. 9 abr 2019 [acesso 2 set 2019]. Disponível: https://bit.ly/2EnLRrC
  » https://bit.ly/2EnLRrC
• ³
  Movimento antivacina é uma das dez ameaças para a saúde mundial. Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical [Internet]. 11 abr 2019 [acesso 30 ago 2019]. Disponível: https://bit.ly/2MCka4M
  » https://bit.ly/2MCka4M
• ⁴
  Desemprego cai para 11,8%, mas 12,6 milhões ainda buscam trabalho. Agência IBGE [Internet]. Estatísticas Sociais; 30 ago 2019 [acesso 2 set 2019]. Disponível: https://bit.ly/2lzo6X2
  » https://bit.ly/2lzo6X2
• ⁵
  Amado J. Capitães da areia [Internet]. Rio de Janeiro: José Olympio; 1937 [acesso 30 ago 2019]. Disponível: https://bit.ly/2g7uApd
  » https://bit.ly/2g7uApd
• ⁶
  Oliveira JC. O Rio é assim: a crônica de uma cidade. Rio de Janeiro: Agir; 2005. p. 21-5.
• ⁷
  . Revista Bioética: 25 anos influenciando o pensamento ético e bioético no Brasil [editorial]. Rev. bioét. (Impr.) [Internet]. 2017 [acesso 30 ago 2019];25(2):215-7. DOI: 10.1590/1983-80422017252000
  » https://doi.org/10.1590/1983-80422017252000

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  26 Sept 2019
• Date of issue
  Jul-Sep 2019