Sanitary surveillance and bioethics

Abstract

Regulatory practices in the field of health surveillance are indispensable. The aim of this study is to show ‒ taking the Brazilian National Health Surveillance Agency, governing body of sanitary surveillance in Brazil as a reference ‒ that bioethics provides public bodies a series of theoretical tools from the field of applied ethics for the proper exercise and control of these practices. To that end, the work uses two references of bioethics for the development of a comparative and supportive analysis to regulatory activities in the field of health surveillance: the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights of Unesco and the theory of intervention bioethics. We conclude that organizations and staff working with regulatory activities can take advantage of the principles and frameworks proposed by bioethics, especially those related to the Declaration and the theory of intervention bioethics, the latter being set by the observation and use of the principles of prudence, precaution, protection and prevention.