Bioetica

BIOÉTICA: CONTEXTO HISTÓRICO, DESAFIOS E RESPONSABILIDADE
JOSÉ N. HECK Universidade Federal de Goiás / Universidade Católica de Goiás, Brazil Abstract The word ‘Bioethics’ presents, from the beginning, a double aspect. It characterizes a specific discourse, denotes several practices, assumes academic facets, generates knowledge disputes theoretical space, at the same time that occupies clinics, cares for the living together of human and no-human animals, configures Ethics committees, outlines public polices and has as its banner the survival of the environment. The double character of Bioethics makes of it a branch of the theoreticalinvestigative sciences and a branch of the normative sciences that have a commitment with the acquisition of knowledge directed to tasks that induce to the incorporation of other areas, disciplines and scientific practices to the initial subject-matter. Bioethical knowledge is not limited to the therapeutic field, but discloses itself in multiple technological applications that involve the universe of the living beings, the sphere of the microorganisms and the equilibrium of the ecosystems. The term ‘Bioethics’ identifies a planetary demand for intervention in the modus vivendi of humanity, in the habits of peoples, in the conduct of individuals, in the State sovereignty, in the paradigms of scientific success, entrepreneurial and private. The philosophical black-box of Bioethics lies in the diffuse concept of responsibility. The seriousness of the programmatic statute of Bioethics in the scenery of the normative sciences depends of the consistency of a concept decentralized of responsibility. Keywords: Bioethics, Environment, Responsibility, Normative Sciences, Survival, Human Species.

Introdução O que se convenciona chamar de “bioética” possui moldura conceitual de longa tradição no pensamento ocidental. Dos gregos até nossos dias, passando por escolas, credos e programas, o agir humano não apenas é percebido, constatado e