La revista Cuadernos de Bioética, órgano oficial de la Asociación Española de Bioética y Ética Médica, publica cuatrimestralmente artículos y recensiones bibliográficas sobre todas las áreas de la bioética: fundamentación, ética de la investigación, bioética clínica, biojurídica, etc. Estos proceden de los aceptados en la revisión tutelada por los editores de la revista como de otros que por encargo el comité editorial solicite a sus autores.

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The Globethics library has no. 20, octubre-diciembre, 1994 - no. 100, septiembre-diciembre, 2019. More recent issues are available on the publisher's website:http://aebioetica.org/cuadernos-de-bioetica.html

Recent Submissions

  • Propuesta de un marco deontológico para los biólogos españoles

    Díez Fernández, José Antonio; Rodríguez, Francisco (2019)
    Deontology is the set of duties and obligations in which the correct act is specified in the exercise of a profession. The Deontological Codes (CD), in addition to respecting the legal framework in which they are inserted, must go beyond the laws insofar as they are a reflection of the ethical commitment of each profession; commitment to deontological principles, which also helps to shape your identity. The aim of this project is to provide, based on the bibliography and current legal and deontological regulations, a proposal to serve as a guide for the accomplishment of Ethic Codes for Biologists (CDB), which currently does not exist in Spain, taking as a basis the revision of the ethics codes of other professions related to Biology. Under this purpose, a systematic and comparative review has been carried out of other health professions ethics codes, of the ethical guidelines emanating from scientific societies (above all, from the Anglo-Saxon area) and of the regulations applicable to those professions. The result is the proposal of the most important sections that we believe this Code should contain.
  • El lugar del hombre y la antropología en la bioética

    Tomar Romero, Francisca (Asociación Española de Bioética y Ética Médica, AEBI, 2013)
    A partir del análisis de su estatus epistemológico, el artículo se centra en la fundamentación filosófica de la bioética, destacando la necesidad de una auténtica antropología como referente o punto de partida. Por tratarse de una ética aplicada, la primera fundamentación de la bioética está en la ética. Se muestra cómo únicamente una ética personalista puede ofrecer un criterio objetivo y universal, al adoptar como referente la naturaleza o esencia del hombre. La antropología filosófica estudia al hombre como un todo, de una manera íntegra, desde la perspectiva de su naturaleza o aspectos fundamentales de su ser. Se analiza la distinción y relación entre la antropología filosófica y las antropologías positivas, así como con las ciencias físicas, humanas y sociales. Finalmente, se reflexiona sobre la actual crisis antropológica y sus consecuencias en el orden ético.
  • Discursos de género y bioética

    Aparisi Miralles, Angela (Asociación Española de Bioética y Ética Médica, AEBI, 2014)
    The purpose of this paper is to present some of the contributions of the gender discourse to the bioethical debate, specifically in the field of nursing. At the same time, it will explain the contribution of the different feminist theories to the recognition and respect of human dignity. Basically, it will describe the three fundamental models in the gender discourse: the egalitarian model, the difference model, and the model of reciprocity or complementarity. The starting point is that even though the first two models have made significant contributions in the field of bioethics, they have nonetheless brought with them some deficiencies and reductionisms inherent in their thinking. The complementarity model, on the contrary, when properly understood, allows for the combination of the principles of equality and difference between man and woman, which places it at a much more enriching standpoint within the bioethical debate
  • Una aproximación al pensamiento de Edmund D. Pellegrino (II)

    Santiago, Manuel de (Asociación Española de Bioética y Ética Médica, AEBI, 2014)
    This second approach to the doctrine and thinking of Edmund D. Pellegrino presents the basics of the author�s proposal to reform medical ethics, based on the rehabilitation of beneficence principle in health care. It describes the research and interest of our bioethicist towards the concept of �good� of the patient and his four components. Pellegrino�s classic concepts of �healing� and �help� are also analyzed, as distinctive aspects of the new ethics structure. Ultimately, the debate about the identity of Medicine is also introduced, along with the concepts of essentialism and its social constructivism, a capital issue for the author for the future of Medicine
  • Una aproximación al pensamiento de Edmund D. Pellegrino (I)

    Santiago, Manuel de (Asociación Española de Bioética y Ética Médica, AEBI, 2014)
    This essay contains an approach to the moral thinking of Pellegrino. This first part addresses the elementary sources of Medicine identity, as seen by the author, which was the starting point for his research on the role of both physicians and Medicine, and led him to his proposal to reform medical ethics. His thinking is developed in four different scopes: 1) the ideal of medical education; 2) Medicine as a moral enterprise; 3) the medical humanities in the formation and professional life of physicians; 4) the philosophy of Medicine as source and origin of medical ethics
  • La relación con el paciente desde la perspectiva personalista. Saber comunicar, un imperativo ético

    Montaner Abasolo, María del Carmen; Soler Company, Enrique (Asociación Española de Bioética y Ética Médica, AEBI, 2012)
    The ability to communicate with patients is part of health care practice and contributes to the humanization of such care and to the objectives. With basic coaching tools and personalized attention, the life of the patient can be transformed from the first moments of intervention. Beyond words, patient, in all their multidimensionality, need to be comforted and fell that they are being taken care of. The health care professionals transmits information verbally and non-verbally. «Positive» consultations are described as warm, friendly, firm and reassuring, and there exists an emphatic response to the cognitive and emotional concerns of the patient. The opposite approach involves the assumption of roles and a lack of empathy (paternalism, servility, authoritarianism, laissez-faire, etc.). The ability to communicate is an ethical need in health care training. A personalized perspective, open to transcendence, is especially suitable in the health field, where communication must take into account the complex reality that the patient is living.
  • Problemas éticos en la selección de embriones con finalidad terapéutica

    Collazo Chao, Eliseo (Asociación Española de Bioética y Ética Médica, AEBI, 2010)
    The first saviour sibling produced entirely in Spain was born in Hospital Virgen del Rocío of Seville in October 2008. The consequente mass media coverage has unleashed multiple requests for similar treatments to be curried on throughout the country. The process, its methodology and efficiency are revised. Their anthropological, ethical and deontological foundations are explored in order to assess their fulfilment. Umbilical cord banking blood is proposed as an alternative.
  • La progresiva desprotección jurídica de la vida humana embrionaria en España: de la ley 35/ 1988 a las leyes 14/ 2006 y 14/2007

    Germán Zurriaráin, Roberto (Asociación Española de Bioética y Ética Médica, AEBI, 2009)
    Este artículo analiza la Leyes españolas de Reproducción Humana Asistida y de Investigación Biomédica. Éstas permiten el uso de óvulos, embriones y fetos humanos. Junto a las dificultades técnicas y éticas que comporta la investigación con células troncales embrionarias, el descubrimiento de la reprogramación inducida de células adultas al estado embrionario (iPS) abre nuevas perspectivas en medicina regenerativa que hacen innecesario el uso de embriones congelados o producidos por transferencia nuclear. Estas razones implicarían una revisión de la legislación española en esta materia, para que la vida humana sea límite ético y fundamento para una verdadera investigación biomédica.
  • Dignidad y ética del cuidar en las enfermedades neurodegenerativas

    Russo, Teresa (2015)
    In the context of neurodegenerative diseases the doctor is called more than in other areas to respond not only to the simple question of health, but also to the need of assistance, which implicates the necessity of relationship, too. The scheme of symptom-diagnosis-treatment-healing is to be replaced in these cases with a treatment based on an open system of uncertain length and results. It is a model called “medicine of incurable”, which aims to combat the discomfort of the disease rather than the fight against the disease. In this perspective, the commitment to ensure a quality of life to the sick in itself means attention to his dignity, which is expressed in acting towards him treating him always as a person, that is protagonist of his life, and then to recognize his right to be assisted in physical, psychological and spiritual dimensions. In this model it becomes particularly important to converse with the patient, even if affected by cognitive pathologies, as well as to stimulate hope, with the belief that human being, if properly supported, is still able, even in extremely critical situations, to make out of his personal experience a chance to grow, thanks to the construction of new balances, however weak they may be.
  • Medicina y crimen contra la humanidad. El legado de la doctora Adélaïde Hautval

    Bea Pérez, Emilia (2016)
    This article approaches the testimony of the Alsatian psychiatrist Dr Adélaïde Hautval on the pseudomedicine that was practiced in the Medical experimentation Block 10 of Auschwitz Birkenau, and on her refusal to take part in this crime against humanity. By reading her deportation diary and the acts of a peculiar judgment in Auschwitz that was celebrated in London in 1964, we are confronted with the ethical and professional dilemmas that doctors, who were themselves prisoners, had to face in this situation, and that incited them to resist inhumanity by acts, to disobey their superiors, and to be solidary with the victims. This attitude enlightens us on the course to follow in front of the bio-political policies of today.
  • Identidad de la medicina en el pensamiento de Edmund D. Pellegrino

    Santiago, Manuel de (2016)
    This essay addresses Pellegrino’s thought on Philosophy of Medicine; it also provides an approach to his concerns on the changing relationship between patients and physicians which took place in the late twentieth century in the United States and, finally, to his contribution to the identity of Medicine debate. From an Aristotelian-Thomist way of thinking, and from a phenomenological approach to the medical act, he identifies the ending of Medicine and also its limits concerning to “healing”, in his two moments, curing and helping, which includes caring. Medicine –the essence of Medicine− tends to healing, for this relationship between patient and physician tends to a “good” which ultimately ends up being its finality. Medical ethics germinates within this relationship, the clinical encounter, as a universal experience of illness, pain and humane limitation. Therefore, healing is the essence of Medicine and truly its genuine identity. Besides healing any other act is not strictly medical. From the doctrine of Pellegrino emerges that original and classic idea of “the good of the patient” as the main and ruling principle of medical ethics. Medical act is no longer just a technique –a technical act− but also a moral enterprise, which our teacher relates to the so called “medical virtues”. But this “good” may not be understood nowadays in the old Hippocratic terms and should also be related to the dignity of the patients and to his or her moral autonomy. And accordingly an updating of the concept of good is demanded by the teacher who, to this intent, stresses four main aspects which are summoned in the article.
  • La justicia en Edmund D. Pellegrino [Edmund d. Pellegrino justice]

    Ojeda, Joaquín (Asociación Española de Bioética y Ética Médica, 2014)
    "Edmundo D. Pellegrino dedica una significativa parte de su pensamiento a profundizar en el sentido de justicia en medicina como virtud, consciente de que una mala interpretación de ésta pude llevar a importante sufrimiento a una parte importante de la población, especialmente a los ancianos y personas sin recursos. El autor analiza el impacto que tiene los cambios sociales y el avance de la ciencia y tecnología en la relación médico-paciente, eje vertebrador de todo sistema sanitario justo" ["Edmund D. Pellegrino has dedicated a significant amount of his time analyzing the virtue of justice in medicine, aware that it´s misinterpretation could drive to an important load of suffering in vulnerable population, such as elderly or poor patients. The author also studies the impact of social changes as well as science and technology development in doctor-patient relationship, spinal cord of every justice-based health system"]
  • Self-effacement o desprendimiento altruista [Self-effacement]

    de Santiago, Manuel (Asociación Española de Bioética y Ética Médica, 2014)
    "Los autores reflexionan en torno a una virtud médica que estiman muy necesaria en la relación médico-paciente en nuestro tiempo, que denominan “auto-desprendimiento” o desprendimiento altruista. Es decir, la actitud y disposición del profesional de la Medicina a ser fiel a la confianza que el paciente deposita en él, dispuesto siempre a la ayuda y a la búsqueda de sus mejores intereses. Siempre que las decisiones adoptadas respeten y se salvaguarde la conciencia del médico" ["The authors reflect around a medical virtue much needed in estimating the doctor-patient relationship in our time, they call “self-effacement”. That is, the attitude and disposition of medical professional to be faithful to the trust placed in him patient, always willing to help and search for their best interests. Whenever decisions respected and physician conscience is maintained"]
  • Prudencia, virtud indispensable [Phronesis: medicine´s indispensable virtue]

    Moreno Villares,José Manuel (Asociación Española de Bioética y Ética Médica, 2014)
    "Frente a aquellos que propugnan que la Medicina no es más que una ciencia aplicada, Pellegrino argumenta que la razón última de la Medicina es enfrentarse al hombre en su condición de enfermo. No es suficiente entonces sólo el conocimiento científico-técnico, sino el acercamiento a su humanidad. No se busca sólo la curación de la enfermedad —posible sólo en un cierto número de casos—, sino la mejoría del hombre enfermo, en cuanto enfermo y en cuanto hombre. En esta aproximación no basta la competencia profesional, sino las disposiciones necesarias para ser una buena persona, un buen profesional. Para alcanzar los fines de la medicina, el médico ha de adquirir aquellas cualidades que le permitan hacer el bien que se propone hacer, es decir, que sea poseedor de virtudes. De entre todas las virtudes del médico, la prudencia —phronesis— es la que le ayuda a aplicar la regla general a la situación particular. No sólo eso, sino que le dirige hacia que la acción sea además de técnicamente correcta, buena. Se convierte así en una conexión entre las virtudes intelectuales y las virtudes morales. El objetivo principal de Pellegrino ha sido encontrar una filosofía de la medicina en y para la práctica médica. Mediante la prudencia la acción del médico abarca también un “pellizco” de su fin: el acto de curación, el bien del enfermo. Y esto es posible dentro de una comunidad moral de profesionales, pues es esencia, la medicina es una comunidad moral, donde los miembros están unidos por el conocimiento y los principios éticos" ["Facing those who defend that Medicine is not but an applied science, Pellegrino argues that the ultimate goal of Medicine is facing to a human being in his illness condition. Thus, it is not sufficient to have scientific knowledge but proximity to man kindness. Cure is not the only goal —achievable in only a few cases— but healing, caring with a person as an ill person and as a person. For this reason, professional competence is not enough; the physician needs to have the necessary dispositions to be a good person, a good professional. To get the goals of Medicine, the physician has to achieve those qualities who allow him to do the good he is intended to, that is, he needs to be virtuous. Prudence —phronesis— is the virtue that allows him to apply a general rule to a particular case and, furthermore, addresses his actions to be not only technically correct, but excellent. Prudence is, then, the link between intellectual virtues and moral virtues. Pellegrino’s main objective has been to elaborate a Philosophy of Medicine, different from the Philosophy of Science, useful for clinical practice and used by clinical practitioners. By nurturing prudence, a small bit of the final goal is reached: the healing, the goodness for the sick. This should be possible if we are embedded in a moral community, and for Pellegrino, sharing knowledge and ethical values is the way of being part of a moral community"]
  • Semblanza de un maestro [Portrait of a teacher]

    de Santiago, Manuel (Asociación Española de Bioética y Ética Médica, 2014)
    "Se describe a grandes rasgos los datos biográficos de Edmund D. Pellegrino, su origen modesto y las dificultades para acceder a los estudios de Medicina, un breve recorrido por su vida profesional como médico internista, profesor de Medicina y escritor, sus numerosas nominaciones y cargos de la más alta responsabilidad de importantes instituciones sanitarias, escuelas de Medicina y Universidades de Estados Unidos. Se hace a alusión a su extraordinario curriculum, a sus innumerables homenajes, nombramientos y premios y se destaca su extraordinaria contribución a la bioética clínica. Sus últimas décadas en la Universidad de Georgetown y su contribución a la reforma de la ética médica fueron de una creatividad extraordinaria, que le llevó a alcanzar un prestigio legendario" ["Some biographical data are given about the life of Edmund D. Pellegrino, his modest origins, his effort to get to study Medicine and an overview to his professional life as internist physician, Medicine professor and writer, besides his multiple nominations and high-responsibility appointments in healthcare institutions, medical schools and universities throughout the United States. There are several mentions of his impressive resume and of the numerous tributes he received, as well as appointments and distinctions, and finally, it is also stressed his extraordinary contribution to clinical bioethics. His last decades at Georgetown University and his creative contribution to reform medical ethics led him to achieve a legendary prestige"]
  • Las virtudes en bioética clínica [The virtues in clinical bioethics]

    de Santiago, Manuel (Asociación Española de Bioética y Ética Médica, 2014)
    "El retorno a la virtud del agente, del médico, en la ética de la Medicina constituye el eje nuclear del modelo de ética propugnado por Pellegrino. En su contexto Pellegrino, siguiendo a MacIntyre, introduce el concepto de “virtudes médicas”, alma mater de su propuesta reformadora. En este artículo se sintetiza el pensamiento del autor desde tres perspectivas: 1) una aproximación a la teoría de la virtud; 2) los fines de la Medicina y las virtudes; y 3) profesionalidad y ética de virtudes. Se alude igualmente, completando, el horizonte de la virtud del autor, a las virtudes cristianas en la práctica médica y a la virtud del desprendimiento altruista del profesional, aunque ambas cuestiones se derivan a sendos artículos individuales de la monografía" ["The return to the virtuous physician, in medical ethics, is the key point of the ethical model proposed by Pellegrino. Following MacIntyre thinking, Pellegrino introduces the “medical virtues” concept, alma mater idea of his reforming proposal. This article describes the thinking of the author from three different outlooks: 1) an approach to the theory of virtue; 2) the ends of Medicine and virtues; and 3) professionalism and the virtues ethics. Finally, summing up his vision on ‘virtue’, it describes his vision of Christian virtues in medical practice along with the virtue of self-effacement of physician, though directs to specific articles where these issues are addressed in the monography"]
  • Las virtudes cristianas en la práctica médica [The christian virtues medical practice]

    de Santiago, Manuel (Asociación Española de Bioética y Ética Médica, 2014)
    "El retorno a una ética de virtudes en diálogo con la tradición moral de la Medicina y la ética biomédica constituye el esqueleto de la propuesta de reforma de la ética médica de Pellegrino. La pregunta sobre el por qué del intento del autor se responde en este trabajo, que sintetiza su libro “Las virtudes cristianas en la práctica médica”. Inquieto por el oscurecimiento de la conciencia médica y la intuición de la fe cristiana en peligro, en su percepción respecto de los cambios que se sucedían en la práctica de la Medicina en su país, Pellegrino y Thomasma, hombres de fe profunda, abordan el compromiso de los médicos cristianos y quienes se suman a ellos en el modo y forma de ejercer la Medicina. Desde una profunda fidelidad al mensaje evangélico, el texto de su libro representa un aldabonazo a la conciencia de los médicos creyentes, que conduce una visión exigente, enriquecedora y comprometida, del ejercicio de la Medicina" ["The return to an ethic of virtues in dialogue with the moral tradition of Medicine and biomedical ethics is the backbone of Pellegrino’s proposed reform of medical ethics. The question why this author proposes this reform is answered in this paper that summarizes his book “The Christian Virtues in Medical Practice”. Perceiving the changes in the practice of medicine in their country, Pellegrino & Thomasma, men of deep faith, concerned about the darkening of medical conscience and the intuition of danger to the Christian faith, they address the commitment of Christian physicians and those who join them in the mode and form of practicing medicine. Deeply loyal to the Gospel message, the book represents a wake-up call to the conscience of believing professionals, leading to a demanding, enriching and committed vision of the practice of medicine"]
  • Benevolencia y compasión [Benevolence and compassion]

    del Río Villegas, Rafael (Asociación Española de Bioética y Ética Médica, 2014)
    "Ed Pellegrino entiende las virtudes dentro de la dinámica de una acción que no se deduce de los principios sino que procede de un modo de conocimiento prudencial que sabe reconocer la finalidad propia del bien para dirigirlo a una plenitud que hace bueno al agente. Una de las que caracteriza la acción del médico es la compasión que es un rasgo de su carácter, aglutinador de aspectos psicológicos, culturales, sociológicos, étnicos e intelectuales que encauza el aspecto cognitivo de la curación y lo concreta en la realidad de un paciente concreto. Lo más propio de la compasión médica es lo que Pellegrino denomina su dimensión intelectual, que es una forma de comprensión integrada que posibilita la consecución de todos los niveles en los que se define el bien del enfermo. Es la disposición habitual, de aprehender, manejar y sopesar la unicidad con la que el paciente vive la enfermedad. La necesidad de la compasión, como del resto de las virtudes propias de la profesión médica, nos devuelve una vez más a la necesidad de la formación de un sujeto capaz y a la unión que existe entre todas las virtudes. A la prudencia le corresponde la ordenación de la virtud de la compasión hacia los fines de una vida lograda que se vislumbra en un ideal de médico que se pretende alcanzar" ["Ed Pellegrino understands the virtues within the dynamics of an action that does not follow the principles but comes from a way of reasonable knowledge that recognizes the very purpose of good to steer correctly makes a good agent. One of the characteristic action of the physician is the compassion that is a trait of his character, unifying psychological, cultural, sociological, ethnic and intellectuals who channels the cognitive aspect of healing and in particular the reality of a particular patient. Most own medical compassion is what Pellegrino calls its intellectual dimension, which is a form of integrated understanding that enables the achievement of all levels at which the patient is well defined. It is the usual choice, grasp, handle and weigh the uniqueness with which the patient lives the disease. The need for compassion, and the rest of the medical profession’s own virtues, returns us once again to the need for the formation of a subject capable and unity between all virtues. A prudent management rightful virtue of compassion toward the end of a successful life that is emerging in an ideal health to be achieved"]
  • Una aproximación al pensamiento de Edmund D. Pellegrino (II) [An approach to the thinking of edmund d. Pellegrino (II)]

    de Santiago, Manuel (Asociación Española de Bioética y Ética Médica, 2014)
    "En esta segunda aproximación al pensamiento y doctrina de Edmund D. Pellegrino, se abordan las bases y propuesta de reforma de la ética médica del autor, a partir de la restauración de la beneficencia en los Cuidados de Salud. Se sintetiza la profundización del bioeticista acerca del concepto de “bien” del paciente y sus cuatro componentes. También se analizan los clásicos conceptos de Pellegrino sobre “sanación” y sobre “ayuda”, que caracterizan a la estructura filosófica de la nueva ética. Finalmente, se introduce el debate del propio autor en torno a la identidad de la Medicina, sobre los conceptos de esencialismo y constructivismo social de la misma, cuestión capital para el autor sobre el futuro de la Medicina" ["This second approach to the doctrine and thinking of Edmund D. Pellegrino presents the basics of the author’s proposal to reform medical ethics, based on the rehabilitation of beneficence principle in health care. It describes the research and interest of our bioethicist towards the concept of ‘good’ of the patient and his four components. Pellegrino’s classic concepts of ‘healing’ and ‘help’ are also analyzed, as distinctive aspects of the new ethics structure. Ultimately, the debate about the identity of Medicine is also introduced, along with the concepts of essentialism and its social constructivism, a capital issue for the author for the future of Medicine"]
  • Fortaleza y templanza [Fortitude and temperance]

    Montero Sánchez del Corral, Borja (Asociación Española de Bioética y Ética Médica, 2014)
    "El ejercicio de la medicina interesa la vida y la salud de los seres humanos. La búsqueda del bien y la excelencia profesional en cada caso particular exigen del médico la práctica de virtudes profundamente implicadas en la propia esencia de la medicina. Con referencia al trabajo de Edmund D. Pellegrino se describe y reflexiona sobre la fortaleza y la templanza como virtudes médicas" ["Medical practice involves life and health of human beings. The search of the good and professional excellence in each particular case requires Doctors to practice virtues that are deeply implied in medical philosophy. Referring to Edmund D. Pellegrino´s work, we describe and think about fortitude and temperance as medical virtues"]

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