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Revista Latinoamericana de Bioética

Print version ISSN 1657-4702

rev.latinoam.bioet. vol.14 no.1 Bogotá Jan./June 2014

 

EDITORIAL

BIOETHICS: KNOWLEDGE, SCIENCE, AND SOCIAL RELEVANCE

JUAN MARÍA CUEVAS SILVA


Investigate the world and its dynamic from a bioethic perspective; this knowledge or science must be established from the realities that accompany everything that is involved in the mysterious framework known as 'life'; it must give the possibility to help understand 'the life of the world' (in all its phenomenological expression); it must cover territories that go further than what is scientific or legal. Investigate, enquire, reflect in the context of of socio-cultural and political and economic processes from a bioethic perspective. It demands that those who are aware of this interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary knowledge be immersed in the contexts and and its realities, in the cartography of life that has been the routes of various interpretations of the meaning of life.

The wealth of a bioethical production is not rooted in incomprehensible language, but instead, its spirit and meaning is rooted in setting routes and establishing alternatives to face the challenges of different complexities that surround the human being from a scientific perspective and affect and influence any expression of life; they must contribute to the comprehension of the meaning of life at its peak; a peak that is not only human, but that the meaning of life overcomes what is existential and moves toward what is vital, toward the protection of life and the respect for what is most sacred for human beings. In that sense, the Latin American magazine of bioethics is a space in which the authors of articles present reflections and revisions, the social construction of knowledge that is contextualized and that looks to contribute to the comprehension of the phenomena that accompany life and the progress in medical science, to what that progress demands to law, and to the way societies establish socioeconomic, sociocultural, political, and economic systems that demand bioethics to loosen its discourse and internalize it within the processes of human rights, violence, environmental and economic reflection, the influence of the economy and politics within different life's perceptions, and its interference in the way humans live and other species survive. Moreover, bioethics, in a context of world uncertainty in terms of population growth, a shortage of food and resources, and the extinction of animal species and human communities that result from artificial survival systems such as economic, social, and cultural systems that are built by the famous human rationality. These systems cannot be ignored by bioethics; on the contrary, they must be a bioethical research resource that is used to establish the meanings of life and the effects that these systems have on life itself.

The articles that are published in this edition are the result of research, reflection, and review, in which the problema of life is highlighted, from a medical, ethical, sociopolitical, socioeconomic, environmental, and ecological dimensión. These articles get close to social problems that have their essence in a bioethical character with a sense of commitment and social responsibility, and as Miguel Kottow states in his article, one of the objectives in bioethics is to recognize that bioethics opposes to any thanatological biopolicy and denies to accept that moral blindness is an excuse to not assume the responsibility of unrighteous acts; acts that are reflected in social processes of coexistence. Fabio Garzon, based on the investigation about the western hills in Bogotá, suggests that a preservation model be implemented, in which all citizens are integrated in generating life alternatives and development. These aspects have been altered by forms of life that have settled in regions as a result of the presence of violence. Alexander Cotte and María del Rosario Castro believe that "bioethics and its relationship with violence and agressio is clear, even more, when you analyze the moral and legal responsibilities and the forms of violence and agression over a particular population.

According to the approach that is developed in this article, bioethics opens research and reflective perspectives about the meaning of life and the protection of citizens, but not only based on medicine or law. It also establishes inter and transdisciplinary relationships with socio-cultural, socioeconomic, and socio-oilitical phenomena that cannot be seen as necessary functional agents, but we must study these aspects as structural axes that interfere in life itself.

Edgar Novoa states that 'we are witnessing an onthological turn in our relationship with nature and also among ourselves, and we are mediating for the growing and speedy development of technoscience in a globalized context, and that is evident in laboratories and in new forms of production.

A new form of production that determines the way to be in this world, occupy it, and become dimensions that take us to the bioethical field. From the ideas given by Anelise Crippa and Anamaria Gonçalves dos Santos Feijó, one of the main issues of bioethics is to consider that "Saúde, contemporaneamente, entende-se como um estado de completo bem-estar físico, mental e social e não somente a ausência de doença". This aspect is complemented by aspecto que es complementado Omar Parra when he states that "the accelerated scientific changes imply new relationships, transformations, and mutations. The boundaries between science and humanism dissolve and have a new and different meaning. Meanings change, but we also have to ask ourselves if this also means that the meaning of being, living, or surviving change as well. These questions can be answered by approaches made by Elena Rey and Enrique Ferrer from an ethical perspective, and the ideas developed by Dario Palhares and Antonio Carlos Rodrigues when they study the problems faced by Empresa Brasilera de Servicios Hospitalarios.

This way, the Latin American Jourbal of Bioethics confirms in this article its commitment with the academy, science, and intelectual production with responsibility and social relevance. Its mission is to be a space for socialization in the construction of knowledge with rigorous research.