- In Mexico there are 1,196 Hospital Bioethics Committees, 425 Research Ethics Committees and 31 State Bioethics Commissions.
- The 2022 meeting has as its motto “With science, with health, with humanism, with bioethics”.
- Some of the main ethical medical dilemmas are: legal abortion, transgenic foods, biotechnological advances, manufacture and supply of medicines, vaccines and regulation of the pharmaceutical industry.
After 30 years of creation, the National Bioethics Commission (Conbioética) has contributed to raising and preserving the health, quality of life and well-being of Mexicans, without detriment to the warmth and humanism that characterizes it. He is also the highest authority dedicated to the analysis of major medical ethical dilemmas.
Most common dilemmas in medical practice
During the inauguration of the International Congress of Bioethics 2022 and the XV National Meeting of the State Bioethics Commissions, Dr. Jorge Alcocer Varela maintained that Conbioethics has emerged as a guide for reflection on health care; environment; scientific research; the professional and technical training of human resources for health, and the dissemination and dissemination of science with ethics and humanism.
“For three decades, Conbioética has addressed issues with bioethical dilemmas in a normative and academic manner, among which are: primary health care, legal abortion, transgenic foods, biotechnological advances, manufacturing and supply of medicines, vaccines and regulation in the pharmaceutical industry”.
The rights of patients and medical professionals are also added; palliative care; elimination of violence against women; advance directive; cultural diversity; teaching of bioethics; migration; research ethics; ethics in the doctor-patient relationship; social skills in medical practice, nursing and other areas of health.
By spearheading the work of this International Congress and the XV National Meeting of State Bioethics Commissionswhich this year has as its motto “With science, with health, with humanism, with bioethics”.
The head of the SSa said that this institution has remained a national, plural, secular and inclusive communication bridge. A space for reflection, meeting and transdisciplinary reunion and in which all areas of knowledge come together.
He stressed that Conbioethics It is recognized as a pillar of society and a State institution that helps to guarantee compliance with Article 4 of the Constitution, understanding health as a right linked to comprehensive human development and the well-being of individuals and communities.
He pointed out that through the Bioethical Knowledge Center and its physical and virtual libraries, Conbioethics has favored and strengthened the promotion and dissemination of bioethical culture through the search, collection and updating of specialized information in its field of reflection and action.
Likewise, it has favored respect for dignity, the safeguarding of the rights and autonomy of people and their communities, tolerance, the prevention of discrimination and violence, inclusion and solidarity in scientific, social and cultural contexts. Of the health.
How should the new bioethics be?
Alcocer Varela stressed that the mexican bioethics advocates for a healthy moral development of science and technology, without ambiguities and with the clear perspective that bioethics must be a fundamental factor for the protection of life in all its diversity and not only the survival of the human species.
He emphasized that more than an abstract definition on paper, it is necessary to discuss access to medical care and the social determinants of health from bioethics.
He called for reflection on the concept of a new bioethicsless passive, more applied, that deliberates, makes normative approaches and proposes public policies to regulate and resolve conflicts in social life, in life sciences, as well as in medical research, with current repercussions and for future generations.
The head of Conbioethics, Patricio Santillán Doherty, mentioned that, although the word bioethics began in medical activity and its relationship with the human being, it has now been extended to environmental protection.
before the representative of the Pan American and World Health Organizations (PAHO/WHO) in Mexico, Miguel Malo Serrano, indicated that Conbioethics established from its birth everything related to life and health in the field of clinical and surgical advances, clinical and basic research in humans and animals.
Currently, he reported, there are 1,196 Hospital Bioethics Committees, 425 Research Ethics Committees and 31 State Bioethics Commissions.
The representative of the Mexican Academy of Surgery, Manuel H. Ruiz de Chávez Guerrero, said that given the diversity of positions in bioethics, spaces for critical reflection are required that allow contrasting perspectives and establishing ethical minimums to guide professional and scientific performance in Health.
In this sense, he commented that it is not enough to spread and list the principles of bioethics, but to root it at the level of the clinical space and the social fabric. This implies the formation of instances for the analysis, deliberation and exchange of perspectives, to put their own moral convictions to the test and to reaffirm the scope of the responsibility of health professionals.
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