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Revista Latinoamericana de Bioética

Print version ISSN 1657-4702

Abstract

VASCONELOS, Camila  and  GARRAFA, Volnei. Ethical-legal reflections on the challenges to the medical duty in the assistance of the vulnerable social patient. rev.latinoam.bioet. [online]. 2017, vol.17, n.2, pp.42-50. ISSN 1657-4702.  https://doi.org/10.18359/rlbi.2782.

The medical-assisting obligation to maintain a consistent professional practice to the ethical and legal issues finds challenges when faced with seemingly different circumstances. Thus, both situations and respectfully for the autonomy of individuals, especially those who are socially vulnerable, may appear to be confronted with legal aspects concerning civil capacity; as the duty of information and clarification to the patient is capable of raising doubts when it is a circumstance in which the “right not to know” should be applied. In this context, the article analyzes these possible contradictions based on a brief logical-deductive interpretation of its concepts in a Latin American reality, according to ethical-legal perspectives. Foucauldian philosophical approaches help in the understanding of the delivery of information as an initial search for the empowerment of patients' discourse, as well as Kantian analyzes on the idea of ​​due clarification, dialogue with the understanding of the concepts of Majority and Minority in discussion with the rights to know the truth or to have them omitted to the subjects. The Bioethics of Intervention, as Latin American theorization in defense to vulnerable subjects, brings concepts that favor the contextual understanding of the necessary protection of the subjects. The practice of medicine in care has, in fact, encountered challenges, requiring a broader understanding of institutes that may favor their practice in respect of patients, not enough understanding about legal issues, especially in contexts of lack of protection and social exclusion.

Keywords : Autonomy; social vulnerability; consent; right to not know; bioethics of intervention.

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