Bioethics is known as that branch of Ethics that is concerned with promulgating the principles that the conduct of an individual in the medical field should observe. Although, bioethics is not only reduced or limited to understanding with regard to the medical field, but also tends to understand, also, those moral problems that arise in the course of daily life, extending then its object of study and attention to other issues such as being the correct and due treatment of animals and the environment, for example.
Although these are questions about which man has investigated a lot during his history, bioethics It is a relatively new discipline and its name is due to the American oncologist Van Rensselaer Potter, who used it for the first time in 1970 in an article that was published in the magazine of the University of Wisconsin.
Bioethics is supported by four principles: autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice.
Autonomy basically implies respect for all people, ensuring them the necessary autonomy to act on their own, that is, as owners of their own decisions, even in the case of sick people. Acting autonomously will always imply responsibility and it is an inalienable right, as I told you, even in illness. In the medical context, then, the medical professional must always respect the values and preferences of the patient because it concerns their own health.
The principle of beneficence indicates to the doctor the obligation to always act for the benefit of others, which he immediately assumes if he becomes such. Charity implies promoting the best interest of the patient but without taking his opinion into account, because of course, he does not have the necessary knowledge to resolve his condition as if the doctor does.
On the other hand, the principle of maleficence establishes the intentional refraining from carrying out actions that may cause harm or harm to others. It may happen in some circumstances that in the search for that solution for the patient, harm is incurred, in this case, then, there is no will to harm, the issue will go through avoiding unnecessarily harming others. This will involve the doctor having adequate and updated technical and theoretical training, researching new treatments, procedures and therapies, among other issues.
And finally the principle of justice that will imply providing equal treatment to all in order to reduce social, economic, cultural, and ideological inequalities, among others. Although it should not be like that, it is known that sometimes, the health system in some parts of the world privileges the care of some and detracts from that of others just because of a social or economic situation, among the most recurrent, then, this is to what this principle of justice points to.
The main topics in which Bioethics will understand will be organ transplantation, euthanasia, assisted reproduction, abortion, in vitro fertilization, genetic manipulation, ecological problems, the environment and the biosphere.
