Transplantes: bioética e justiça

Bioethics, as a branch of philosophy that focuses on questions relative to health and human life, is closely tied to the idea of justice and equality. As such, in understanding the concept of equality in its original sense, that is, in associating it to the idea to treat "unequals" (those who are unequal or different, in terms of conditions or circumstances) unequally (differentially), in proportion to their inequalities (differences), we see that the so-called "one-and-only waiting list" for transplants established in law no. 9.434/97, ends up not addressing the concept of equality and justice, bearing upon bioethics, even when considering the objective criteria of precedence established in regulation no. 9.4347/98, Thus, the organizing of transplants on a one-and-only waiting list, with a few exceptions that are weakly applicable, without a case by case technical and grounded analysis, according to each particular necessity, ends up institutionalizing inequalities, condemning patients to happenstance and, consequently, departs from the ratio legis, which aims at seeking the greatest application of justice in regards to organ transplants. We conclude, therefore, that from an analysis of the legislation and of the principles of bioethics and justice, there is a need for the creation of a collegiate of medical experts, that, based on medical criteria and done in a well established manner, can analyze each case to be included on the waiting list, deferentially and according to the necessity; thus, precluding that people in special circumstances be treated equal to people in normal circumstances.A bioética, como ramo da filosofia que enfoca as questões relativas a saúde e a vida humana, está intimamente ligada à idéia de justiça e igualdade. Desta forma, entendendo o conceito de igualdade em sua acepção original, ou seja, associando-o à idéia de tratar desigualmente os desiguais na medida de suas desigualdades, observamos que a denominada "lista única de espera" para transplantes, prevista na Lei 9.434/97, acaba por se afastar do conceito de igualdade e justiça, norteadores da bioética, mesmo considerando os critérios objetivos de precedência previstos na Portaria n.o 3.407/98. Assim, a organização dos transplantes em lista única de espera, com tímidas exceções para alguns casos, sem a análise técnica e fundamentada, caso por caso, quanto à necessidade preeminente, acaba institucionalizando desigualdades, relegando os pacientes à própria sorte e apartando-se, assim, da ratio legis, que visa buscar maior justiça no que tange ao transplante de órgãos. Concluímos, então, a partir da análise da legislação e dos princípios da bioética e justiça, pela necessidade da criação de um colegiado de médicos experts, que baseados em critérios técnicos e de forma fundamentada, possam analisar cada caso para fins de inclusão na lista de espera, de acordo com a necessidade e preeminência, evitando-se, assim, que pessoas em situações desiguais sejam tratadas igualmente

Sexual Harassment in the Physician-Patient Interaction: Analysis of Charges Against Doctors in the State of São Paulo

OBJECTIVE: This research intends to discuss sexual harassment within the doctor-patient relationship based on four parameters: doctor's characteristics, accuser's characteristics, accusation characteristics, and the evaluation by the Medicine Council of São Paulo. METHOD: It is a descriptive, quantitative approach using a retrospective documental analysis. Studied subjects were doctors who were allegedly engaged in sexual harassment. This analysis considered all accusations made from January 2000 to December 2005 (n=150). RESULTS: For this type of sexual abuse, there was a prevalence of male professionals (96.6%) who committed abuse against female patients (90.3%) during adulthood (77.7%). The mean age of the accused was 46.87 years, ranging from 30-76 years, concentrated between 46-75 years. The intrinsic difficulty of understanding sexual harassment by a professional constrained ethical evaluation of the cases, with 24.1% of the cases being considered proceeding charges by the professional council. When the cases were recognized as proceeding, they were either filed (88.2%) or were considered to be ethical infringement (11.8%) becoming Professional Ethical Process (PEP). In the majority of proceeding cases (87%), there was a Police Occurrence Report enclosed. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The incidence of sexual abuse by professionals was independent of education, as the accused professionals came from a large variety of medical colleges, without significant differences related to institution. The predominance of accusations against older professionals may occur due to the frail personality structure that allows professional acting out. Objective evidence is very important in ethical evaluations compared to psychological and subjective evidence

Lattice study of ChPT beyond QCD

We describe initial results by the Lattice Strong Dynamics (LSD) collaboration of a study into the variation of chiral properties of chiral properties of SU(3) Yang-Mills gauge theory as the number of massless flavors changes from $N_f = 2$ to $N_f = 6$, with a focus on the use of chiral perturbation theory.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures. Presented at the 6th International Workshop on Chiral Dynamics, University of Bern, Switzerland, July 6-10 200