This article provides an overview of recent contributions to the debate on the ethical use of previously collected biobank samples, as well as a country report about how this issue has been regulated in Spain by means of the new Biomedical Research Act, enacted in the summer of 2007. By contrasting the Spanish legal situation with the wider discourse of international bioethics, we identify and discuss a general trend moving from the traditional requirements of informed consent towards new models more (...) favourable to research in a post-genomic context. (shrink)

Although bioethics is a lively and expanding interdisciplinary field, there is not enough research about the patient-doctor relationship, a central issue in philosophy of medicine. This article surveys the state of the field, paying attention to recent work by Alfred Tauber, and supplementing it with insights from Hans Jonas's philosophy of technology in order to propose a principle of responsible autonomy for health care. Based on a comparative look across different sub-fields in bioethics, the resulting model claims that physician responsibility (...) is essential to professional integrity, providing an alternative to other active trends emphasizing patient autonomy, such as Robert Veatch's contractual model. (shrink)

This article provides an overview of recent contributions to the debate on the ethical use of previously collected biobank samples, as well as a country report about how this issue has been regulated in Spain by means of the new Biomedical Research Act, enacted in the summer of 2007. By contrasting the Spanish legal situation with the wider discourse of international bioethics, we identify and discuss a general trend moving from the traditional requirements of informed consent towards new models more (...) favourable to research in a post‐genomic context. (shrink)

Biobanks challenge the traditional model in research ethics, in which the autonomy of subjects donating samples for biomedical research is to be protected by means of informed consent. This paper identifies a global trend towards governance models more favourable to research, in which a single act of consent is used to authorize a wide range of research projects. It argues that the protection of autonomy is often understood just as the requirement to sign an informed consent form; but the autonomy (...) of research subjects is neither an isolated decision nor a purely individual one, as it affects groups of people along time. Some ways out of this problem are discussed, both by re-conceptualizing autonomy and by expanding the informed consent process. Taking into account the relationship between public trust and donor participation, the possibility of respecting autonomy by means of narrative is suggested, with the aim of promoting the scientific culture of a population and debating the ethical issues raised by biobanks. (shrink)

Although bioethics is a lively and expanding interdisciplinary field, there is not enough research about the patient‐doctor relationship, a central issue in philosophy of medicine. This article surveys the state of the field, paying attention to recent work by Alfred Tauber, and supplementing it with insights from Hans Jonas's philosophy of technology in order to propose a principle of responsible autonomy for health care. Based on a comparative look across different sub‐fields in bioethics, the resulting model claims that physician responsibility (...) is essential to professional integrity, providing an alternative to other active trends emphasizing patient autonomy, such as Robert Veatch's contractual model. (shrink)

This paper aims to study from the perspective of bioethics the controversy about door-to-door waste collection (DtD). Three goals are pursued: (1) to provide terms of comparison between different systems of urban waste management, (2) to distinguish the specifically ethical issues introduced by DtD, and (3) analyze its innovative character as a social technology. After briefly considering the state of the art, in which a bibliographical revision shows that the ethics literature has relatively neglected this topic, Siurana’s “moral compass” is (...) applied to the question concerning waste. Next this proposal is used to describe and assess the two main models being discussed. After introducing the most innovative features of DtD, some recommendations are issued and plausible objections answered. (shrink)

Tras una revisión bibliográfica, el artículo proporciona una presentación de la filosofía política de Henry D. Thoreau, enfatizando en su obra un concepto de autodeterminación cívica que Habermas descompone en una autonomía pública y otra privada. Sostengo que Thoreau no era un anarquista antisocial, ni tampoco un mero liberal individualista, sino que su liberalismo presenta elementos propios de la teoría democrática e incluso del comunitarismo político. Finalmente, identifico y describo una tensión entre esos temas liberales y democráticos, tanto en la (...) obra de Thoreau como en la vida política de las sociedades occidentales, mostrando así la relevancia de este autor. (shrink)

Reseña de: Siurana, Juan Carlos (2009) La sociedad ética. Indicadores para evaluar éticamente una sociedad, Barcelona, Proteus.

In our research group on the philosophy of biology (www.ehu.es/ias-research), we are developing an understanding of autonomy as the maintenance of an identity over time by means of interaction with...

RESUMEN: El uso de analogías en bioética es muy frecuente. Dado que son instrumentos especialmente eficaces desde un punto de vista retórico, resulta fundamental determinar bajo qué condiciones la formulación de analogías constituye un recurso discursivo legítimo. En este artículo, distinguimos entre usos no-discursivos y usos discursivos de las analogías, y dentro de estos últimos, entre usos explicativos y usos argumentativos. En base a esta clasificación, proponemos distintos conjuntos de criterios para determinar si una analogía particular constituye un recurso discursivo (...) legítimo o no. Para ello, ilustramos brevemente nuestra clasificación mediante algunos ejemplos tomados del reciente debate sobre los biobancos.ABSTRACT: Analogies are frequently used in bioethics. As they are particularly effective as rhetorical tools, it is essential to determine under which conditions they can be said to be a legitimate discursive resource. In this paper we distinguish between nondiscursive uses and discursive uses of analogies and, within the latter, between explanatory uses and argumentative uses. Taking this classification as a basis, we provide different sets of criteria for determining whether or not a particular analogy constitutes a legitimate discursive resource. In distinguishing between legitimate and illegitimate analogies, we briefly illustrate our classification by some examples from recent literature on biobanks. (shrink)

The target article by Alexander Kon (2009) offers an excellent conceptual toolkit to analyze the current literature on empirical bioethics, a topic which has attracted so much attention in the bioe...

Ethics committees are one of the main agents in the governance of science and technology, especially in the field of health care. This paper analyses some aspects of their nature, which show the internal relationship between the moral and the scientific-technological domains. Being both knowledge providers and users thereof, ethics committees deliberate and decide on complex contemporary ethical issues. To pursue their aims, they require adequate technical tools in order to deliberate and choose using new technologies of communication and information. (...) These tools carry new problems with themselves, so committees must acquire a mixed nature, dynamic, interdisciplinary and inclusive. Ethics committees do not only constitute a control device, rather they are an interactive means for the creation of value in society. (shrink)

El uso de analogías en bioética es muy frecuente. Dado que son instrumentos especialmente eficaces desde un punto de vista retórico, resulta fundamental determinar bajo qué condiciones la formulación de analogías constituye un recurso discursivo legítimo. En este artículo, distinguimos entre usos no-discursivos y usos discursivos de las analogías, y dentro de estos últimos, entre usos explicativos y usos argumentativos. En base a esta clasificación, proponemos distintos conjuntos de criterios para determinar si una analogía particular constituye un recurso discursivo legítimo (...) o no. Para ello, ilustramos nuestra clasificación mediante ejemplos tomados del reciente debate ético y jurídico sobre los biobancos. (shrink)

It is currently assumed that exposure to an artificial blue-enriched light enhances human alertness and task performance, but recent research has suggested that behavioural effects are influenced by the basal state of arousal. Here we tested whether the effect of blue-enriched lighting on vigilance performance depends on participants’ arousal level. Twenty-four participants completed four sessions (blue-enriched vs. dim light x low vs. high arousal) at 10 pm on four consecutive days, following a repeated-measures design. Participants’ arousal was manipulated parametrically through (...) the execution of a cycling task at two intensities (low vs. moderate), and was checked by monitoring their heart rate. On each session, distal and proximal skin temperatures were recorded as a neuroergonomic index of vigilance, while participants performed a 20-min psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) under either blue-enriched light or dim light conditions. The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS) and Borg Rating of Perceived Exertion Scale (RPE) were used to measure subjective psychological state. The results showed that the exercise-induced manipulation of arousal produced robust alerting effects in most measures, while the lighting manipulation only attenuated subjective sleepiness and enhanced positive affect, but it did not influence behaviour or physiology. Acute exposure to a blue-enriched light was practically ineffective when the arousal level was over baseline. The present research favoured the use of acute physical exercise over acute exposure to blue-enriched lighting in order to boost humans’ alertness when necessary, as in work settings where maintaining optimal levels of attention is difficult (shift work, night-work, vigilance tasks) and necessary to prevent human error and accidents. (shrink)

This section welcomes submissions addressing literature as a means to explore ethical issues arising in healthcare. “Literature” will be understood broadly, including fiction and creative nonfiction, illness narratives, drama, and poetry; film studies might be considered if the films are adaptations from a literary work. Topics include in-depth analysis of literary works as well as theoretical contributions, discussions, and commentary about narrative approaches to disease and medicine, the way literature shapes the relationship between patients and healthcare professionals, the role of (...) speculative fiction as a testing ground for future scenarios in healthcare, and so on. Articles discussing the uses of literature for bioethics education and outreach will be particularly appreciated. Research on literature not originally written in English will be considered as long as it has also been published in translation. Submissions should include an abstract and should conform to theCQGuidelines for Contributors. To submit an article or discuss a suitable topic, write to Antonio Casado da Rocha atantonio.casado@ehu.es.:This article proposes a concept of narrative autonomy to supplement existing accounts in healthcare ethics. This is done by means of a comparison between three end-of-life scenarios: Tolstoy’sThe Death of Ivan Ilyichand two related contemporary stories by Lorrie Moore and Bernhard Schlink, which explore some problems arising when extremely individualistic notions of patient autonomy are put into practice. It is argued that the best model for palliative care is a cooperative one in which patient autonomy is understood as essentially social, and that involves decisional, executive, informational, and narrative dimensions. (shrink)

RESUMEN: El uso de analogías en bioética es muy frecuente. Dado que son instrumentos especialmente eficaces desde un punto de vista retórico, resulta fundamental determinar bajo qué condiciones la formulación de analogías constituye un recurso discursivo legítimo. En este artículo, distinguimos entre usos no-discursivos y usos discursivos de las analogías, y dentro de estos últimos, entre usos explicativos y usos argumentativos. En base a esta clasificación, proponemos distintos conjuntos de criterios para determinar si una analogía particular constituye un recurso discursivo (...) legítimo o no. Para ello, ilustramos brevemente nuestra clasificación mediante algunos ejemplos tomados del reciente debate sobre los biobancos.ABSTRACT: Analogies are frequently used in bioethics. As they are particularly effective as rhetorical tools, it is essential to determine under which conditions they can be said to be a legitimate discursive resource. In this paper we distinguish between nondiscursive uses and discursive uses of analogies and, within the latter, between explanatory uses and argumentative uses. Taking this classification as a basis, we provide different sets of criteria for determining whether or not a particular analogy constitutes a legitimate discursive resource. In distinguishing between legitimate and illegitimate analogies, we briefly illustrate our classification by some examples from recent literature on biobanks. (shrink)

Curso de Geografia de Jean-Jacques Rousseau integra o X volume da edição de OEuvres complètes de Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Édition thématique du Tricentenaire, Slatkine/Honoré Champion (2012), subintitulado Escritos Científicos. Para esta tradução, além do texto consagrado na edição do tricentenário, também utilizamos a edição norte-americana dos textos de Rousseau organizada por Christopher Kelly, intitulada Autobiographical, scientific, religious, moral, and literary writings (2007). Preservamos, integralmente, as indispensáveis notas ao texto em língua francesa, que são de autoria de Christophe Van Staen.

This critical notice argues for the existence of a new trend in bioethics, a complex and dynamic field of philosophical enquiry that goes beyond applied ethics and professional deontological codes. This trend supplements their traditionally “minimalist” ethics—and its concern with harm, rights or justice—with “inflationary” positions open to an integration of medicine with the humanities. By comparing and contrasting the views of two quite different philosophers, Diego Gracia and Alfred Tauber, and placing them within the theoretical background delineated by George (...) Khushf, I argue that the main contribution of this “inflationary bioethics” is an understanding of health and disease as intrinsically normative concepts, which in turn brings about a blurring of the distinction between facts and values. By refusing to construe the distinction as a dichotomy, a post-positivist philosophy of medicine must become more epistemological in order to help us clarify concepts in which the evaluative and the factual are impossible to separate. As a result, the “language of principles” in standard bioethics is being substituted by a more encompassing “language of values”; health and disease are increasingly understood as biopsychosocial phenomena; and the field is open to a process of moralization that challenges traditional models of patient autonomy and physician responsibility. (shrink)

By means of a survey of Thoreau's writings, this article analyses his thoughts on health, emphasising some features that fit well with contemporary debates in the philosophy of medicine. Thoreau understands health as an environmental value, one that cannot be achieved without a personal relation to nature, but he does not provide a static definition of health within a fixed hierarchy of values. Thus he avoids a certain degree of essentialism that, when imposed on his work, makes it seem more (...) utopian and anti-scientific than it really is. The meaning of health for Thoreau is often contradictory and hard to disambiguate, and his context was different in many respects to ours, but his ideas on this topic still serve to criticise some of modern medicine's views on health and disease, and to steer it towards a more environmentally-informed approach to these phenomena. (shrink)

Reseña de: Jesse Prinz: Beyond Human Nature. How Culture and Experience Shape Our Lives. London, Allen Lane, 2012. 401 pp. ISBN: 978-0393061758.

Es recomendable leer los libros en su idioma original, para entablar un trato inmediato con su sintaxis, su léxico y su contexto y para comprender de forma genuina el pensamiento y el propósito de su autor. Al mismo tiempo hay que celebrar las traducciones, ya que introducen en otra lengua reflexiones extranjeras o menos conocidas y despiertan o avivan nuestro interés por ellas. Esto último acontece con Confesiones de un médico, versión española de Confessions of a Medicine Man de Alfred (...) J. Tauber, gracias a la pulcra y precisa traducción de Antonio Casado da Rocha. .. (shrink)