Reflections about Bioethics and Citizenship Revealed from the Historic Evolution of Accusations against Doctors on a Brazilian Council of Medicine

Abstract

"Doctors in Brazil are subject to civil, penal and ethicalprofessional responsibility in their professional activities. In e ethical-professional sphere, the law gives the Councils of Medicine the exclusive right to inspect professional practice and judge ethical infractions committed by doctors, based on the Código de Ética Médica (Code of Medical Ethics). In medical practice, conflicting situations often arise that may be responsible for the accusations made in the Councils of Medicine. Bioethics enables a critical reflection that embraces the plurality. The objective of this study is to analyze, from the perspective of bioethics, the evolution of citizenship, as seen through the content of accusations against doctors in the State of Bahia. A retrospective, descriptive, cross-sectional study was th carried out through documentary research. Of the total accusations, there were 204 between 1970/1979, 394 between 1980/1989, 919 b tween 2000/2006. The most frequent place of the occurrence was the capital; there was no difference between public and private institutions; the same frequency was observed in relation to gender; and 17 groups were categorized. There was a significant increase in the number of accusations over time, which was in accordance with the literature. Many studies affirm that the main factor responsible for the growth is the poor quality of relations between the doctor and the patient. A pr b Brazilian socie e Consumer C ciple of ju f (1988) an that the ode (1990) ce should pos he stud ek to p vulnerability Protection a so d Int f th through Sta e int . T against do ors ha awaren ease ndou advances in 1990s ated s we atemporal, while others were distributed with higher frequency in the more recent years. "