The claim that nurses should be patient advocates is a questionable one, especially when it is mixed in with the professional issue of nurses' freedom to practice. A less combative, more cooperative model of the profession would serve nurses better.

A lo largo de veinte años el tema de la eutanasia ha estado presente en casi 80 escritos publicados en la revista Persona y Bioética, un acervo nada despreciable si se quiere profundizar en el tema y conocer las bases que llevan a sostener que la eutanasia no puede ser un acto médico, y que sus consecuencias son nefastas para las personas y las sociedades, al tratarse de uno de los más señalados ejemplos de la cultura de la muerte. La (...) Asamblea de la Asociación Médica Mundial en varias declaraciones se ha pronunciado sobre la eutanasia como contraria a la ética; en la declaración sobre la enfermedad terminal indica que “condena como antiético tanto la eutanasia como el suicidio con ayuda médica”; en la resolución adoptada en la Asamblea General de 2002 y ratificada en la sesión del Consejo de 2013 la Asociación Médica Mundial “reafirma su firme convencimiento de que la eutanasia entra en conflicto con los principios éticos básicos de la práctica médica”, e “insta enfáticamente a todas las asociaciones médicas nacionales y los médicos a no participar en la eutanasia, incluso si está permitida por la legislación nacional o despenalizada bajo ciertas condiciones”. Así se preserva la confianza como uno de los mayores bienes, patrimonio y salvaguarda del ejercicio de la medicina. (shrink)

La investigación en general y la investigación biomédica en particular han de tener como uno de sus resultados obligados la publicación científica, para su visibilidad y mejor aporte a la sociedad, sin embargo, muchas veces se encuentra un desbalance entre el cuidado ético de la investigación y las consideraciones éticas de la publicación. Esta diferencia puede repercutir negativamente y de manera directa sobre la credibilidad y la factibilidad de reproducibilidad de la primera y las posibilidades de difusión de la segunda, (...) ya que los editores difícilmente darían vía libre a manuscritos con falencias en este sentido. Se hizo un paralelismo bioético entre la ética de la investigación y la ética de la publicación, a partir de los requisitos que propuso Emanuel (2008) para la investigación que involucra seres humanos. Como resultado se ofrecen unas pautas de verificación que le servirán de herramienta a los investigadores para mejorar el contenido ético de sus publicaciones y a los editores para comprobar el cuidado ético de lo que se pretende publicar. Es importante contar con un elenco de pautas sencillas, prácticas y de amplia divulgación que vayan a la par de las indicaciones que rigen la investigación biomédica, que le sirvan tanto a investigadores como a los editores para aproximarse a publicaciones sin problemas éticos y así evitar las malas prácticas en publicación. También es recomendable que los investigadores reciban una formación específica en ética de la publicación. (shrink)

The phenomenal properties of conscious mental states happen to be exclusively accessible from the first-person perspective. Consequently, some philosophers consider their existence to be incompatible with materialist metaphysics. In this paper I criticise one particular argument that is based on the idea that for something to be real it must (at least in principle) be accessible from an intersubjective perspective. I argue that the exclusively subjective access to phenomenal contents can be explained by the very particular nature of the epistemological (...) relation holding between a subject and his own mental states. Accordingly, this subjectivity does not compel us to deny the possibility that phenomenal contents are ontologically objective properties. First, I present the general form of the argument that I will discuss. Second, I show that this argument makes use of a criterion of reality that is not applicable to the case of subjective experience. Third, I discuss a plausible objection and give an argument for rejecting observation models of self-knowledge of phenomenal contents. These models fall prey to the homunculus illusion. (shrink)

El presente escrito tiene por objetivo demostrar cómo el estado actual del capitalismo neoliberal, entendido como una fuerza productora de la subjetividad basada en el rendimiento [síntesis de la disciplina (Foucault) y el control (Deleuze y Guattari) que se cataliza con la digitalidad (Han, Berardi, Fisher, entre otros)], se centra en ejercer una colonización frente al tiempo como concepto estructural de la existencia humana para poder desplegar un sistema de dispositivos psicopolíticos que le permitan su reproducción sistémica. Para conseguir este (...) objetivo la investigación cuenta con tres momentos: el primero expone el paso del domino espacial del capitalismo fordista al neoliberalismo actual de carácter temporal desde una disincronía del tiempo. El segundo explica la desfactificación del mundo como la pérdida del vínculo humano con la realidad, lo que perturba directamente el estado de ánimo de los sujetos desde un peso cargado de nihilismo. Finalmente, se expone la psicopolítica como un concepto que parte tanto de la disincronía como de la desfactificación para posicionar un dominio sugestivo de la psique humana. (shrink)

Work in the field of health has been distorted over the years, with the emergence of new health systems that have made the delivery of services a real business. As a result, the field has lost not only the motivation with which it originated, but also the human quality of providing health care. It is not new to say that exercise of the medical profession is in crisis. The causes of this predicament can be found in policies and health systems (...) that are poorly imitated, poorly administered, mismanaged, and poorly regulated. However, there is no denying the crisis is also due to the loss of the Hippocratic spirit that gave force and vitality to the medical profession from its beginning. Several aspects of work in health and health care, namely, scientific and technical competence (knowledge and knowhow) and human skills (knowing “how to be”), are examined in this chapter, based on a brief look at the patients and the professionals who serve them. The author goes on to discuss three fields of professional activity where these competencies play out: the Hippocratic tradition, social responsibility, and constructive dialogue. In conclusion, and in light of the above, several initiatives and strategies to humanize health services are suggested. They involve example, communication, accompaniment, correction, purpose, and professionalism. (shrink)

doi: 10.5294/pebi.2015.19.2.1 Los Objetivos de Desarrollo del Milenio pierden vigencia en el 2015. La ONU ya tiene preparado el paso siguiente: los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible, que adoptó en su Asamblea General en cuya apertura estuvo como invitado el papa Francisco...

Nuevos campos de aplicación de la bioética han surgido con ocasión de la pandemia del SARS-Cov-2, pero muchos retos bioéticos se mantienen y es necesario reflexionar sobre la realidad que el ser humano tendrá que vivir luego de ella. Esta reflexión se hace en torno a una triple agenda: desafíos, alertas y orientaciones. La agenda de desafíos trata de los desarrollos científicos y biotecnológicos por venir; de los cambios en la forma de trabajar y de estudiar; de reorientar el desarrollo (...) sustentable; de los cambios en los comercios y las empresas del entretenimiento. Estos desafíos se podrían resumir como cambios en los paradigmas del desarrollo. La agenda de alertas incluye el manejo de las especies silvestres; la desconfianza en las clases políticas; los comportamientos humanos insolidarios y delictivos; la sobreabundancia de información; la emulación de las industrias farmacéuticas; los determinantes de la cultura de la muerte. Las alertas podrían resumirse en la importancia de promover la cultura de la vida. La agenda de orientaciones incluye tener en cuenta una serie de principios como la dignidad de la persona humana, el bien común, la opción preferencial por los pobres, el destino universal de los bienes, la solidaridad, la subsidiariedad y el cuidado de la casa común. Estas orientaciones apuntan a una conversión ambiental, esencial y existencial. Todos estos cambios serán posibles gracias a la resiliencia humana, al profesionalismo y la solidaridad social que sean capaces de configurar un verdadero proyecto de desarrollo humano integral. (shrink)

The present article considers the implications projected by the main characters of Universal History of Infamy by Jorge Luis Borges. The seven protagonists embody a common pattern in their infamous trajectory: they exploit the tools of power by using discourse, according to the proposition by Michel Foucault, despite their being “on the other side of the law”. Although conditioned by specific historical-cultural circumstances, these heroes-antiheroes share the use of evil and the ascent to a seudo-mythical pedestal subsequently to the summit (...) of their infamy. One of the central ideas of the article is that the tension between evil –abjection– and the ascension to the category of myth –sublimation– originates the discharge of the infamy and configures its universal image. (shrink)

Reseña de la obra Carta de una mujer indignada desde el Magreb a Europa de Wassyla Tamzali (Cátedra 2011)).

The space-time expansion has a new perspective on the universe phenomena. In this article, the key features of the Space-Time Expansion Theory are summarized and discussed, with three postulates incorporating different insights into the behavior of space-time expansion, gravity, space-time curvature, and time itself. Gravity is not an attraction; it is a push. Inertia, free fall, the principles of the theory of relativity and some other phenomena support the author’s assertions. The expansion of space-time is universal, occurs everywhere, and produces (...) gravity instead of counteracting it. Being immersed in the same space-time acceleration, we only perceive the disturbance caused by the matter, which is the massive objects push. This study aims to offer scientists an alternative investigation. “Gravitation is not attraction; it’s a push.” All in accordance with hydrodynamic gravitation and expanding Universe. (shrink)

Da Vinci, 500 años después: del humanismo a la humanización Da Vinci, 500 anos depois: do humanismo à humanização Leonardo Da Vinci is a prototype of humanism. Five hundred years after his death, we reflect on what humanism may add to humanization in health sciences in general and medical education in particular. The history of thought classifies humanisms into Renaissance, socialist, existential, hermeneutic, anti-humanism and new humanism. By contrast, transhumanism is pointed out. Their main lines of thought and exponents are (...) listed. Finally, some reactions of contemporary philosophy to these humanisms are explained, and it is concluded that for proper humanization it is necessary to build on the basics contributed by classical humanism and some key points of bioethics. Para citar este editorial / To reference this editorial / Para citar este editorial Gamboa-Bernal GA. Da Vinci, 500 años después: del humanismo a la humanización. Pers Bioet. 2019;23:171-179. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5294/pebi.2019.23.2.1. (shrink)

The objective of this article is to assess the impact of generative artificial intelligence (AGI) as a learning tool in clinical practice, as perceived by clinical students of human medicine. To this end, six learning activities were devised and executed, employing diverse pedagogical approaches and AGI tools, with the objective of addressing various facets of clinical practice. These included the creation of explanatory material, literature analysis, the selection of clinical cases for publication, the development of self-assessment questions, the production of (...) explanatory videos, and the creation of scientific posters. These activities were conducted during the clinical internships of the fifth year of the medical curriculum and were evaluated using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The findings indicated that the incorporation of GAI as a pedagogical instrument in the clinical training of medical students yielded a favorable influence on their motivation, self-assurance, satisfaction, competencies, and knowledge. The students identified GAI as a novel, applicable, useful, and transferable tool and expressed interest in continuing to use it in the future. However, the results also indicated that students encountered certain challenges and difficulties in utilizing GAI as a learning tool, including overconfidence, resistance, and a lack of understanding. In conclusion, this study provides empirical evidence on the use of GAI as a learning tool for undergraduate medical students' clinical practices, and contributes to the knowledge base regarding the possibilities and challenges of GAI application in higher education. (shrink)

_Importance and implications of an oath in times of a pandemic_ _Importância e implicações de um juramento em tempos de pandemia_ La pandemia del SARS-CoV-2, que causa el Covid-19, es un hecho que está desestabilizando no solo los sistemas de salud, sino la misma cultura actual. En torno a ella hay una serie de elementos que complican su contención, mitigación y tratamiento: interrogantes sobre su origen, profusión de información, medidas de aislamiento con efectos diametralmente opuestos, despertar de una pesadilla de (...) agresión al ecosistema, develamiento de falencias y fragilidades de gobiernos, sistemas económicos y de salud pública; crisis de liderazgo y un largo etcétera. Se examina el trabajo del talento humano en salud a partir de la constatación de situaciones paradójicas frente al mismo y se plantea la importancia del Juramento hipocrático, como razón que justifica el accionar del personal de salud en escenarios normales, pero sobre todo en situaciones límite. Se concluye que el Juramento hipocrático, más que la Declaración de Ginebra, es un punto de partida clave para el actuar médico, también en las crisis, y que la humanidad debería cambiar y salir fortalecida de la pandemia, porque aprendió las lecciones que el Covid-19 le ha dejado. _Para citar este editorial / to reference this editorial / para citar este editorial_ Gamboa-Bernal GA. Importancia e implicaciones de un juramento en tiempos de pandemia. 2020;24:5-13. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5294/pebi.2020.24.1.1 Publicado: 07/05/2020. (shrink)

Undoubtedly, the film Hedwig and the Angry Inch establishes a dialogue with the thesis of love exposed by Diotima of Mantinea in Plato's Banquet, in the sense of understanding love as a solitary adventure and primarily individual expansion. However, more than transferring the ideas of the Greek philosopher, the film opens a discussion about its validity and topicality in specific situations such as identity, ideology and gender. This is why anagnorisis becomes anamnesis in the film; dialectics is an agon, and (...) identity, a becoming. (shrink)

Bruno Latour have been included among the ranks of social constructivism since the 1990’s. In this paper, we analyze one of Latour’s most cited -and criticized- papers, in which he sustained that to say that Ramses II died because of tuberculosis was a nonsense, as ridiculous as to say the he died “of machine gun fire”. To do that, we will contextualize his text in its historical period of production, we will identify Latour’s ontological commitments, and we will introduce his (...) theory on the construction of facts and what he calls circulating reference. We will conclude that Latour was right, neither Ramses II died because of tuberculosis, nor he is a social constructivist. (shrink)

En 2016 se hizo pública una nueva técnica para editar genes: la CRISPR-Cas9. Cinco años después es posible dar una mirada que desde la Bioética examine el desarrollo de esta biotecnología. Es constatable que la técnica de edición de genes en la línea somáticas se ha difundido y está empezando a mostrar algunos resultados. Sin embargo, a pesar de ellos no es posible extender ese trabajo a las líneas germinales a través de la edición hereditaria del genoma humano. Se estudian (...) dos documentos, el informe de la Comisión Internacional para el Uso Clínico de la Edición del Genoma Humano (2020) y el informe de recomendaciones del Comité Asesor de Expertos en el Desarrollo de Estándares Globales para la Gobernanza y Supervisión de la Edición del Genoma Humano de la Organización Mundial de la Salud (2021) y se reflexiona sobre su contenido y sus consecuencias. (shrink)

Este artículo trata de una versión novedosa del cuento folclórico ATU 1215 desconocida hasta la fecha para la crítica que se ha ocupado del mismo. Fue transmitida por el erudito iraquí Ibn Ṭāwūs y data del s. XIII. Dicho texto presenta varios puntos de interés: se trata de una de las muestras escritas más antiguas de este cuento folclórico e introduce la novedad de Luqmān como protagonista paterno respecto a las otras dos versiones árabes conocidas de época medieval, inaugurando una (...) transmisión entre intelectuales chiíes que alcanza hasta la actualidad. A lo largo del trabajo, estudiamos las particularidades de esta versión árabe y la ponemos en relación con las demás árabes premodernas conocidas y otras que sacamos a la luz, comparándolas en ciertos aspectos con otras cristianas medievales. Además, tratamos de explicar por qué en algunos casos se ha considerado el cuento una fábula esópica. Por otro lado, prestamos atención a varias versiones orales protagonizadas por Ǧuḥā y su contribución a la difusión oral del cuento en el mundo árabe asociado a un antiguo refrán. Nuestras conclusiones insisten en la relevancia de la versión de Ibn Ṭāwūs, por los motivos mencionados. Además, concluimos que varios de los textos abordados demuestran la difusión del relato en Oriente en el s. XIII, desde donde una versión emparentada con la del escritor iraquí habría llegado a Europa y circulado en ejemplarios de autores cristianos. (shrink)

Universal Declaration of Human Rights anniversary: More shame than glory? Aniversário da Declaração Universal dos Direitos Humanos: mais pena que glória? Para citar esta editorial / to reference this editorial / para citar esta editorial Gamboa-Bernal GA. Aniversario de la Declaración Universal de los Derechos Humanos: ¿más pena que gloria?. Pers Bioet. 2019; 23: 6-13. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5294/pebi.2019.23.1.1.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:American Journal of Philology 123.4 (2002) 629-633 [Access article in PDF] Phiroze Vasunia. The Gift of the Nile: Hellenizing Egypt from Aeschylus to Alexander. Classics and Contemporary Thought 8. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2001. xiv + 346 pp. Cloth, $45. Alexandre Tourraix. L'Orient, mirage grec: L'Orient du mythe et de l'épopée. Edited by Evelyne Geny. Paris: Presses Universitaires Franc-Comtoises, 2000. 165 pp. Paper, fi24.39. Professor (...) Tourraix is an optimistic reactionary. He sets out his aim with refreshing clarity. He seeks to challenge "l'orthodoxie provisoirement établie," which denies that the Greeks were "tributaires de la représentation du monde véhiculée par leur langue... indo-européenne." Tourraix accuses the "adepts" of this "orthodoxy" of citing Dumézil when he excluded Greece from the regularity of Indo-European patterns of thought, while they reject his basic trifunctional theory. This, Tourraix insists, is not a "doctrine" or an "ideological credo," but the result of a "rational elaboration" (15-16).Tourraix is not concerned with radical outsiders. He dismisses the whole of Said's Orientalism because of the latter's blunder in referring to the chorus of the Persae as women. He warns that Bernal should not be taken seriously because his works are not founded on a "scientific hypothesis but on ideological presuppositions" (75). Tourraix's opponents are the professional classicists, notably Martin West, Walter Burkert, and Ruth Edwards. These promote the idea of a substantial Southwest Asian influence on Greek civilization but are unconcerned with Egypt. In the terminology of this reviewer, Tourraix's polemic is not against the "Revised Ancient Model" but as a supporter of the "Extreme" version, he opposes the "Broad Aryan Model."Tourraix's two centers of concern are Troy and Thebes. Troy interests him as a marginal entity between Greek and Barbarian. He admits that pottery and Hittite texts indicate that there were Mycenaean influences in the Troad. On the other hand, he rightly points out that Homer Hellenized the Trojans more than evidence from other sources can sustain. It has also been impossible to correlate the Homeric version of the city's fall with the date and scale of the destructions of Troy VI, VIIa, and VIIb. Tourraix therefore follows the hypothesis of Paul Wathelet that the destruction described in the epics was not that of an unimportant settlement on the Dardanelles but was really that of the great Greek city of Thebes, which was undoubtedly destroyed in the thirteenth century B.C.E.This is just one example of Tourraix's general approach, which is not to accept things at face value but to probe more deeply. On the central theme of his [End Page 629] book, he agrees that many Greek myths and legends would suggest "Oriental" connections and origins and that much Greek iconography appears to be "Oriental" or Egyptian (75). But he knows that such symbols were devoid of content (23). Unfortunately for his scientific credentials, however, he frequently has to rely on the words probablement or peut-être to see Indo-European essences behind the Oriental forms (e.g., 22-23).Clearly Tourraix has always been concerned with Indo-European "cultures." He has published extensively on both Greeks and Persians and the relations between them. When looking at Greek culture, he sees three main indicators of "l'héritage indo-européen." The first is language: He takes a Whorfian view of its determining power and is unconcerned that less than 40 percent of the Greek vocabulary has known Indo-European cognates. The second indicator is trifunctionalism: Tourraix sees the Indo-European base whenever he encounters a triple. Three, however, is an attractive number to speakers of many languages. The Christian Trinity appears to have originated among Aramaic speakers, and Mesopotamian and Phoenician cities had the same tripartite division of the male inhabitants into citizen, resident alien, and slave that later occurred in the Greek poleis. Thus, besides its vagueness, trifunctionalism is not an... (shrink)

Since the mid-20th century, human beings have become aware of the negative changes that planet Earth is undergoing, some of them produced by themselves and which endanger their existence. One of these changes is the increase in the average temperature caused by the greenhouse effect. The United Nations has taken care of this problem and organized 25 summits on global warming. In 2021, the World Economic Forum proposed leveraging the crisis that the world is experiencing due to COVID-19 for a (...) “great reset” within a globalist agenda that guides the next meeting on climate change. From a bioethical perspective, some components and strategies of this agenda are analyzed, and reflections and recommendations are made. We conclude that climate change is a real issue but magnified by pseudoscience and permeated by politics. Mitigation and adaptation strategies are needed to combat it, including techno-scientific advances, political will, and changes in human behavior. (shrink)