New global realities

We have reached the second half of 2022 and Revista Bioética continues to tread its path, celebrating 30 years of history with many tributes and bringing about reflections, renewal, and updates. We thus seek hope for the post-pandemic future in a scenario of new global realities.

Since its establishment as a discipline and field of knowledge, between the late 1960s and the early 1970s, bioethics has evolved in many contexts, spreading in various scientific and academic areas, especially in the biological and health sciences. Moreover, as it is intrinsically linked to ethics and philosophy, in the journey of construction and application of knowledge, bioethics provides references to advance in the complex postmodern social and human discussions ¹.

Therefore, considering the relevance of technology and innovation—which advance with all areas of knowledge and their processes—the journal's perspective of a future is to motivate these discussions without forgetting that contradictions of poverty and inequality between peoples still persist.

In this issue, the journal brings the discussion of topics that reveal much about the studies on scientific production, with emphasis on access to drugs for patients with rare diseases, in the view of clinical trials and drug efficacy. Regarding care, the review on health care for HIV patients provides a new and complementary perspective to strategies and planning, as well as a new approach to the role of health care teams involved in providing care and sharing decisions at the end-of-life situations.

In another sphere, the autonomy of adolescents facing challenges brings us the agenda of human rights in a bioethical view. We also see that society evolves in the recurring issues surrounding mourning due to fetal death, with a discussion from an anthropological, legal, and medical view.

Also in this issue, we highlight the position of Brazilian Federal Council of Medicine regarding assisted reproduction, in view of resolutions published over time, with scientific, ethical, and bioethical updates. These discussions are complemented by an article that addresses bioethical considerations in various situations, such as post mortem homologous artificial insemination, as well as other topics of interest about genetic testing.

The reality of medical education in Brazil has been the subject of several instances. Medical schools must discuss the improvement of the teaching of ethics, bioethics, and humanities, aiming at greater involvement of students, who should be guided according to educational standards committed to ethical and bioethical principles ². This has also happened in other training courses, such as nursing, in the face of the new reality of patient safety, biosafety, ethics, and health education.

Issues such as advance directives of will are also addressed, in a process of shared deliberation with the patient, under a broader and more dignified vision. It is also essential to value the work done for society to advance in the construction of paths in the medical expert activity related to public servants, health, and illness. Thus, aiming to face the ethical dilemmas at hand, the performance of the medical expert and the deontological norms are highlighted, focusing on the various segments of ethics, technique, science, and balance.

Other relevant topics are also addressed in this issue, such as the valuation of human rights involving adolescents in health situations that transform their quality of life and new paths to be found. The importance of human rights, in the concept of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is also addressed, in parallel to the laws regulating the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS), to identify humanitarian values in the bases of public health in Brazil.

The existing legal bases in the country present concepts about the representation and importance of public health, with a focus on multidisciplinary activity related to evaluations of physical, social, psychological, and disabling vulnerabilities, taking health policies into account.

After these considerations, we emphasize that, in yet another issue, Revista Bioética publishes current and relevant articles, referring us to a continuous search for more knowledge and reflections. The value of medical training is also noteworthy, which goes beyond any commercial or monetary interests, so that the relationship of the medical professional and their patient should be based on trust. This objective is a consequence of a medical training with an axis of humanities, ethics, and bioethics, which treats the phenomenon of life with dignity and respect ³.

We thus cite Albert Schweitzer—winner of the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize—mention in an article written in 1936: the highest ethical principle is the “reverence for life” ⁴.

Certainly, and once more, the journal makes available, through scientific productions of responsible and committed authors, up-to-date materials that will spark discussions about the various topics addressed, helping in the construction of the future that awaits us.

May you all have a great read!

Referências

• ¹
  Nunes CRR, Nunes AP. Bioética. Rev Bras Enferm [Internet]. 2004 [acesso 2 set 2022];57(5):615-6. Disponível: https://bit.ly/3C56buD
  » https://bit.ly/3C56buD
• ²
  Garcia CAS Jr. Humanidades: ensino de “nova” dimensão ética na educação médica. Rev. bioét. (Impr.) [Internet]. 2020 [acesso 2 set 2022];28(3):479-85. DOI: 10.1590/1983-80422020283410
  » https://doi.org/10.1590/1983-80422020283410
• ³
  Molina A. Um outro mundo é possível. São Paulo: Giostri; 2021. p. 174.
• ⁴
  Costa J Jr. A mística do cuidado em Albert Schweitzer. Estudos de Religião [Internet]. 2017 [acesso 2 set 2022];31(1):77-95. Disponível: https://bit.ly/3V22MFO
  » https://bit.ly/3V22MFO

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  28 Nov 2022
• Date of issue
  Jul-Sep 2022