Bioethics and human rights: theorist approach of this interconnection

Abstract

This research intends to identify the way bioethicists explain the relation between Bioethics and human rights, pointing out the areas where they meet and where they distance themselves. It also attempted to briefly present a panorama of the implications that involve the convergence of human rights and Bioethics in terms of moral dilemmas in public health. The methodological steps encompass: analysis of how the interface between Bioethics and human rights has been established by bioethicists, who bring the human rights language into their researchers' theoretical observation; and examination of some bioethicists' theoretical work published in the last five years and that somehow deals with the interface between Bioethics and human rights, focusing on researchers from Latin America, United States and Europe. Investigation of the current bioethics literature showed that, in theoretical terms, there is no evidence of a uniform discourse on the connection between Bioethics and human rights, which announces the process of construction that Bioethics is going through, as well as the plurality of ethical fundaments that permeate Bioethics theoretical production. When dealing with moral dilemmas in public health, we tried to show that Bioethics analysis can make use of human rights principles, once this ethical assessment parameter is chosen for the investigation of sanitary policies and practices. The reason behind this choice is that such principles are the ethical basis for the State acting - and the State is the main responsible for the protection of the health of the population.