JUSTIÇA E DIREITO: UMA ABORDAGEM POLÍTICO-FILOSÓFICA

Na esfera do direito positivo, o conceito de justiça ocupa o plano suprapositivo e não incide diretamente sobre a aplicação das normas jurídicas em vigor. No âmbito filosófico, o conceito de justiça tem a idade do pensamento ocidental, mas há tempo deixou de ser abordada como virtude para inspirar discursos sociais de caráter reivindicatório. O presente ensaio procuratrazer a discussão da justiça para a disciplina “Filosofia do Direito”

Bioética: contexto histórico, desafios e responsabilidade

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

AS DIFERENTES FACES DO DIREITO NATURAL

O trabalho analisa as diferentes variações doutrinárias do direito natural ao longo da história do pensamento político e jurídico no Ocidente. O artigo enforca também a relevância que o jusnaturalismo teve para os primeiros missionários jesuítas nos primórdios há História do Brasil

O suicídio como violação de um dever de virtude

The human ways of dying are nowadays a theme of bioethics. Bioethics reacts to a technological civilization that absorbs the natural occurrence of death in technical mechanisms. The technological interventions exclude suicide from the bioethical debate on the death of human beings. Differently from bioethics, that limits itself to examine the relationships of third parties in view of the voluntary death of individuals, the Kantian doctrine of virtue considers suicide as a violation of the strict duty towards ourselves. The article discusses the reasons why Kant was opposed to suicide and situates his prohibition in the later work of the German philosopher. Key words: Kant, practical reason, suicide, doctrine of virtue, kantian theory of duties.Os modos humanos de morrer são atualmente tema da bioética. Esta reage a uma civilização tecnológica que absorve a ocorrência natural da morte em mecanismos técnicos. As intervenções tecnológicas excluem o suicídio do debate bioético sobre a morte de seres humanos. Diferentemente da bioética, que se limita a examinar as relações de terceiros perante a morte voluntária do indivíduo, a doutrina da virtude kantiana encara o suicídio como violação do dever estrito para consigo mesmo. O artigo expõe as razões que opõem Kant ao suicídio e enquadra sua proibição no conjunto da obra tardia do filósofo alemão. Palavras-chave: Kant, razão prática, suicídio, doutrina da virtude, teoria kantiana dos deveres

Evidencia de la respuesta a un enterramiento a corto plazo de la fauna macrobentónica asociada a la fanerógama marina del Mediterráneo Cymodocea nodosa

Sedimentation and burial affect a variety of habitats worldwide, especially within coastal marine systems. In the Mediterranean, seagrasses like Cymodocea nodosa are commonly subjected to sedimentation and, although the response of C. nodosa has been documented, few studies have included macrofaunal responses. We used a manipulative field experiment to examine the effects of a single small-scale, pulse burial event on benthic invertebrate macrofauna. Burial did not affect the total abundance, richness, or diversity of higher taxa nor the live abundance or diversity after 5 days. However, live higher taxa richness decreased by day 3. After 5 days, such decrease reversed and partial recovery seemed to occur. Almost 2 months later, three of the buried plots remained with some additional sedimentation, but the other three had lost their sediment. We compared faunal metrics of buried plots between days 5 and 54 and found greater diversity on day 54, providing evidence that macrofaunal recovery apparent 5 days after burial seemed to persist. Although we likely underestimated the effects and can only be conservative with our conclusions, taken together our results suggest small-scale, pulse burial events can have some negative effects on the C. nodosa-associated benthic macrofaunal community, but the community can recover within a few weeks.La sedimentación y el enterramiento afectan a una gran variedad de hábitats en todo el mundo, especialmente en los sistemas costeros marinos. En el Mediterráneo, las fanerógamas marinas como Cymodocea nodosa suelen estar expuestas a la sedimentación y, a pesar de que la respuesta de C. nodosa ha sido documentada previamente, muy pocos estudios hacen referencia a cómo responde la macrofauna. Se ha usado un experimento manipulativo en el campo para examinar los efectos de un enterramiento súbito y puntual a pequeña escala sobre la fauna de invertebrados macrobentónicos. El enterramiento no afectó a la abundancia total, riqueza o diversidad de especies, ni tampoco a la abundancia o diversidad de individuos vivos 5 días después del enterramiento. Sin embargo, la riqueza de taxones vivos disminuyó a partir del día 3. Pasados 5 días, esa disminución revirtió y parece tener lugar una recuperación parcial. Casi 2 meses después, tres de las parcelas enterradas todavía presentaron algún tipo de sedimentación adicional, pero las otras tres habían perdido el sedimento. Se compararon las métricas de la fauna encontrada en los días 5 y 54 en las parcelas enterradas, y se encontró una alta diversidad para el día 54, evidenciando que la aparente recuperación que tuvo lugar 5 días después del enterramiento parece persistir. A pesar de que probablemente hemos subestimado los efectos y debemos ser conservadores con nuestras conclusiones, al examinar los resultados conjuntamente, sugieren que estos eventos repentinos y puntuales de enterramiento a pequeña escala pueden tener efectos negativos sobre la comunidad de fauna macrobentónica asociada a C. nodosa, la cual se recuperaría en unas pocas semanas

Municipal distribution of breast cancer mortality among women in Spain

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Spain has one of the lowest rates of breast cancer in Europe, though estimated incidence has risen substantially in recent decades. Some years ago, the Spanish Cancer Mortality Atlas showed Spain as having a heterogeneous distribution of breast cancer mortality at a provincial level. This paper describes the municipal distribution of breast cancer mortality in Spain and its relationship with socio-economic indicators.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Breast cancer mortality was modelled using the Besag-York-Molliè autoregressive spatial model, including socio-economic level, rurality and percentage of population over 64 years of age as surrogates of reproductive and lifestyle risk factors. Municipal relative risks (RRs) were independently estimated for women aged under 50 years and for those aged 50 years and over. Maps were plotted depicting smoothed RR estimates and the distribution of the posterior probability of RR>1.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In women aged 50 years and over, mortality increased with socio-economic level, and was lower in rural areas and municipalities with higher proportion of old persons. Among women aged under 50 years, rurality was the only statistically significant explanatory variable.</p> <p>For women older than 49 years, the highest relative risks were mainly registered for municipalities located in the Canary Islands, Balearic Islands, the Mediterranean coast of Catalonia and Valencia, plus others around the Ebro River. In premenopausal women, the pattern was similar but tended to be more homogeneous. In mainland Spain, a group of municipalities with high RRs were located in Andalusia, near the left bank of the Guadalquivir River.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>As previously observed in other contexts, mortality rates are positively related with socio-economic status and negatively associated with rurality and the presence of a higher proportion of people over age 64 years. Taken together, these variables represent the influence of lifestyle factors which have determined the increase in breast cancer frequency over recent decades. The results for the younger group of women suggest an attenuation of the socio-economic gradient in breast cancer mortality in Spain. The geographical variation essentially suggests the influence of other environmental variables, yet the descriptive nature of this study does not allow for the main determinants to be established.</p

Origens e aporias do jusnaturalismo moderno

http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/1677-2954.2008v7n2p215 O jusnaturalismo perfaz uma doutrina jurídica que prescreve um conjunto de leis para a conduta human, denominado direito natural, cuja validade intersubjetiva não coincide com a validade reivindicada pelo conjunto normativo do juspositivismo aos cuidados do Estado de direito. O princípio filosófico da lei natural pode ser resumido da seguinte maneira: o direito natural é historicamente anterior e eticamente superior aos sistemas de direito positivo dos Estados nacionais. Em caso de conflito, o jusnaturalismo prescreve superioridade e exige preferência perante quaisquer leis positivadas em normas jurídicas