Bioethics Latin American Perspectives

This book presents a unique view of the current state of development of bioethics in Latin America. Twelve Latin American thinkers who share a primary interest in bioethics address a vast range of questions, including autonomy, rights, justice, and the role of culture and religion in bioethics. These studies contribute to an understanding of Latin American thought, and they make possible a transcultural dialogue on bioethical issues.

This collection of papers presents case studies and reflections on research bioethics from the standpoint of two Latin American academics involved in the teaching and dissemination of good practices and essential information on bioethics and various related topics. While limited in scope to a few key issues, the text may be read as an inspiration to comparative analyses of research practices involving human subjects and as an example of the reception of fundamental ideas on science and technology adopted in the Latin American region after their development in other areas of the globe.

This book provides a critical analysis of the experiences of people with disabilities in Latin America. It covers a wide range of topics related to intellectual and psychosocial disabilities. Written by Latin American researchers and adopting an interdisciplinary perspective, it provides an original sociocultural contribution to bioethics and disability studies literature. It presents an in-depth overview of philosophical, ethical, legal, political and social issues. At the same time, it offers a contribution to the global scientific community inasmuch it discusses theoretical references from South America in connection with those from Europe and the United States. The basic questions dealt with range from criteria for human flourishing to questions of philosophy of mind, and neuroethics through phenomenological and aesthetic approaches to intellectual and psychosocial disabilities. The legal and political investigations explore the rights of those affected and the processes of their self-organization. The authors address the dynamics of medicalization and demedicalization, the practices of psychiatric institutionalization and the treatment of children with antipsychotics. This book appeals to psychologists, social scientists, bioethicists, healthcare personnel, philosophers, and lawyers working with cases related to people with disabilities.

This book offers a first rate selection of academic articles on Latin American bioethics. It covers different issues, such as vulnerability, abortion, biomedical research with human subjects, environment, exploitation, commodification, reproductive medicine, among others. Latin American bioethics has been, to an important extent, parochial and unable to meet stringent international standards of rational philosophical discussion. The new generations of bioethicists are changing this situation, and this book demonstrates that change. All articles are written from the perspective of Latin American scholars from several disciplines such as philosophy and law. Working with the tools of analytical philosophy and jurisprudence, this book defends views with rational argument, and opening for pluralistic discussion.

This collection of papers presents case studies and reflections on research bioethics from the standpoint of two Latin American academics involved in the teaching and dissemination of good practices and essential information on bioethics and various related topics. While limited in scope to a few key issues, the text may be read as an inspiration to comparative analyses of research practices involving human subjects and as an example of the reception of fundamental ideas on science and technology adopted in the Latin American region after their development in other areas of the globe.

This book is the first in a series of planned volumes focused on preserving the character of the development of bioethics in particular cultural contexts. As the first of these volumes, Leo Pessini, Christian de Paul de Barchifontaine, and Fernando Lolas Stepke’s work has succeeded well. It has brought together accounts by sch- ars who were crucial to the emergence of bioethics in the Ibero-American cultural domain. This trail-blazing work in the history of bioethics will be of enduring s- nificance. I am deeply in their debt for having shouldered this far from easy task. Bioethics is the product of very particular socio-historical developments. Most prominent among them have been (1) the secularization of the dominant culture of North America, Western Europe, and now Central and South America as well, (2) a deflation of the status and authority of physicians as moral authorities able to guide their own profession, and (3) the salience of a post-traditional animus that gives c- tral place to persons as isolated atomic sources of moral authority. Bioethics initially took shape in North America as a post-Christian, post-professional, post-traditional social movement. This bioethics sought to establish a moral discourse for the public forum, a moral practice able to give practical guidance in hospitals and other insti- tions, and a body of undergirding and justifying theoretical reflections.

This book presents some of the challenges bioethics in Latin America faces today. It considers them through the lenses of vulnerable populations, those incapable of protecting their own interests, such as the illiterate, women in societies disrespectful of their reproductive rights, and research subjects in contexts where resources are scarce.

This book is the first in a series of planned volumes focused on preserving the character of the development of bioethics in particular cultural contexts. As the first of these volumes, Leo Pessini, Christian de Paul de Barchifontaine, and Fernando Lolas Stepke’s work has succeeded well. It has brought together accounts by sch- ars who were crucial to the emergence of bioethics in the Ibero-American cultural domain. This trail-blazing work in the history of bioethics will be of enduring s- nificance. I am deeply in their debt for having shouldered this far from easy task. Bioethics is the product of very particular socio-historical developments. Most prominent among them have been (1) the secularization of the dominant culture of North America, Western Europe, and now Central and South America as well, (2) a deflation of the status and authority of physicians as moral authorities able to guide their own profession, and (3) the salience of a post-traditional animus that gives c- tral place to persons as isolated atomic sources of moral authority. Bioethics initially took shape in North America as a post-Christian, post-professional, post-traditional social movement. This bioethics sought to establish a moral discourse for the public forum, a moral practice able to give practical guidance in hospitals and other insti- tions, and a body of undergirding and justifying theoretical reflections.