Editorial
P. 595
Introduction
P. 599

Artículos:

La historia de Maya Kowalski: no hacer el mal
P. 603
Maya Kowalski’s Story: do no harm
P. 622

El Comité de Bioética de España (CBE)
P. 640
The Spanish National Bioethics Committee (CBE)
P. 677

Valoración bioética de la vasectomía sin hijos: autonomía personal frente a maleficencia
P. 713
Bioethical assessment of vasectomy without children: personal autonomy against maleficence
P. 746 

La planificación familiar como solución al cambio climático. Dilemas bioéticos en el contexto del Desarrollo Sostenible
P. 777
Family planning as a solution for climate change. Bioethical dilemmas in the context of Sustainable Development
P. 815

Afrontar los retos éticos del consentimiento informado para la donación de tejido cerebral
P. 851
Addressing the Ethical Challenges to Informed Consent for Brain Tissue Donation
P. 875 

Reseñas:

Beato Niels Stensen, científico, católico converso y obispo del siglo XVII
P. 896
Blessed Niels Stensen, scientist, Catholic convert and bishop of the seventeenth century
P. 900

Los cuidados paliativos como derecho humano
P. 904
Palliative care as a human right
P. 910

Introduction, p. 285

Articles:

The path from environmental ethics to human ecology, p. 309 
Analysis about the applicability of medical oaths from the perspective of personalist bioethics with an ontological foundation, p. 351
Bioethical challenges of public policies in the face of population aging in Latin America, p. 402
Political authority and biopower. Personalist approach to common themes between the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (No. 377-427) and the French Constitution, p. 457
Institutional development of bioethics in Ibero-America: preliminary results of the Ibero-American Bioethics Atlas, p. 511

Reviews:
The bridge between bioethics and medical practice: medical professionalism, p. 544
Analysis of gender dysphoria in the pediatric setting, p. 557 

Editorial ............................................................... 1
Introduction............................................................. 5
Articles:
Experience of dialogue between adults and young university students on gender issues ................. 35
Marta Rodríguez Díaz, Lílian Santos
Transhumanism and improving quality of life in the elderly:
How could it shape the future of pain and suffering in the elderly? ................................85
Francis Jude Selvaraj
Medical education and human rights in the medical units of Mexico:
towards a new ethical horizon ....................................................................140
Francisco Domingo Vázquez Martínez, María de Lourdes Mota Morales,
Vianey Guadalupe Argüelles-Nava
Spirituality and old age: community as an integrating factor .......................189
José Enrique Gómez Álvarez
Palliative care: an anthropological and bioethical reflection ........................219
Jimena Mónica Muñoz Merino, Silvia Becerra Castro
Reviews

Euthanasia and the end of life. A critical reflection ....................................................235
José Enrique Gómez Álvarez
The slogan of care, medicine, and philosophy .....................................................................244
Francisco José Ballesta

Content
Editorial, p. 887
Articles:
The status of the human embryo: an interdisciplinary (bioethical) analysis of reality, p. 915
Ultra-processed foods as a topic of study in global bioethics, p. 968
The right to breastfeeding of minors born through surrogacy: a biolegal and bioethical analysis, p. 1018
Digital Immortality? Mind Uploading and the quest for everlasting life, p. 1063
Transhumanism and global governance of human genome editing. Common themes and Implications for bioethics, p. 1127

Reviews:
Guantanamo and other cases of enforced medical treatment. A biopolitical analysis, p. 1167

The strange journey of thinking about killing yourself, p. 1178

 

Content
Editorial, p. 577
Articles: 
The problem of individual autonomy and family authority in decision-making in clinical ethics, p. 617
The therapeutic principle facing cognitive enhancement by drugs, p. 685
Bioethical dilemmas in clinical practice and chronic pain management, p. 742
Medical practice and allocation of human resources in health care settings in violent regions, p. 784
Education and social formation in an integral ecology with global bioethics. Remembering the tenth anniversary of Francis, p. 820
Reviews:
The day I almost hated being a doctor, p. 839
What makes us human. Biology, medicine, language, mind, ethics and religion, p. 849

 

 

Content

Editorial, p. 305

Introduction, p. 310

Articles:

Rome Call for AI Ethics: the birth of a movement, p. 333

The embryonic discontinuity and the unity of the person in the thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas. Some impacts on current bioethics, p. 367

Expanded neonatal screening and children’s best interests in health, p. 407

Anthropological problem behind the discrimination generated from artificial intelligence algorithms, p. 456

Biosimilar drugs as essential drugs: ethical and legal reflections, p. 502

Reviews:

Post and Transhumans, p. 526

China and artificial intelligence: the dragon seeks control, p. 538

 

Content

Introduction, 12

Articles:

Ethical dilemmas related to puberty suppression, p. 33

Advance directives during gestation. Bioethical aspects and legislation in Mexico, p. 87

Dignity of persons in clinical research, p. 142

Transhumanism, techno-humanism and ethics, 177

How to face infertility from a medical perspective, respecting the human person and married love? NaProTechnology´s help in these processes, p. 219

Review:

Bioethics: vulnerability and responsibility at the beginning of life, p. 246

Euthanasia and assisted suicide, p. 259

Content

Introduction: María Elizabeth de los Ríos Uriarte, pp. 12

Articles

Ethical dilemmas related to puberty suppression: María Guadalupe Grimaux, Gustavo Paez, pp. 33

Advance directives during gestation. Bioethical aspects and legislation in Mexico: Lorena Andrea Pérez Ferrer, Samuel Weingerz Mehl, Rodrigo Madero Mesa, pp. 87

Dignity of persons in clinical research: Rafael Bustos Saldaña, pp. 142

Transhumanism, techno-humanism and ethics: Luca Benvenga, pp. 177

How to face infertility from a medical perspective, respecting the human person and married love? NaProTechnology‘s help in these processes: José Francisco Vaquero, Helena Marcos, María Victoria Mena, Venancio Carrión, pp. 219

Reviews

Bioethics: vulnerability and responsibility at the beginning of life, Marcela Garibay López, pp. 246

Euthanasia and assisted suicide: José Enrique Gómez Álvarez, pp. 259

Content

Introduction, pp. 601-606

Articles

Weaponized or compromised Ukrainian nuclear power plants as bioterrorism: AI driven Computational Ethics, health equity, and cost effectiveness analysis of prevention and response, pp. 639-666

Bioetihcs and integral ecology: The role of universities in the care of the common house, pp. 685-700

Citizen initiative versus decriminalization of abortion, pp. 737-770

Some problems of conscientious objection, pp. 805-836

Vaccination: Between autonomy and solidarity. The balance of principles from a global bioethical perspective in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, pp. 861-882

Reviews

Clinical bioethics: A brief introduction, pp. 889-894

Cosmopolitan ethics, pp. 905-914

Introduction: pp. 317-322

Articles:

Ethical dilemmas of non-invasive prenatal genetic diagnosis using cell-free fetal DNA technology: An appraisal of the first ten years since its introduction in medical practice, pp. 341-356

The global AI ethics of COVID-19 recovery: narrative review and Personalist Social Contract ethical analysis of AI-driven optimization of public health effectiveness and social equities, pp. 377-394

Personhood and coma: a reversible approach, pp. 419-440

Teaching care-ethics, pp. 457-472

Ethical distribution of resources, palliative care, and other bioethical aspects in times of pandemic in Mexico, pp. 489-504

The management of chronic pain –not oncological–: an emerging bioethical challenge, pp. 527-546

Review:

Contemporary ethical debates, pp. 555-561

Content

Introduction, p. 13

 Articles:

COVID-19 and global bioethics, p. 53

Bioethics and global justice. Critical analysis of the COVID-19 global vaccination strategy, p. 105

Global Bioethics: ¿New arguments on animals’ rights?, p. 143

Bioethical implications in the «contagion effect» of suicide, p. 185

How NaProTechnology compares with Assisted Reproductive Technology, p. 223

Self-assessment of knowledge and application of the code of conduct by public health servers in Tlaxcala, p. 253

Review:

Bioethics, p. 273

Content

Introduction: pp. 881-889

Articles

Therapeutic adherence in patients with chronic non-communicable diseases: diabetes, hypertension and obesity, pp. 897-923

Biomedical research in human beings from public ethics: the social value of research, pp. 947-969

The fetus as a patient: different positions on the same concept, pp. 989-1009

Preliminary proposal of guiding principles for a global bioethics capable of facing today's challenges, pp. 1029-1059

Shared Decision Making in Mental Health: A Novel Proposal, pp. 1087-1111

Reviews

Bioethics, neurosciences and mental health, pp. 1135-1139

Bioethics and human rights. xxv years of reflections, pp. 1143-1149

Content 

Introduction: p. 629

Articles

Doctor-patient relationship and emotional intelligence, a challenge in medical education, p. 651

The neuroethics of surrogacy, p. 685

Reasons for presenting clinical cases of patients to the Hospital Bioethics Committee, in a Second Level Hospital, p. 731

Covid-19 population lockdowns may worsen socioeconomic inequities disproportionately impacting racial minorities: Machine learning-augmented cost effectiveness and computational ethical analysis with personalist social contract, p. 781

Anthropology of development and integral ecology in good living, p. 821

Overview

Bioethics and cinema. From narration to deliberation, p. 845

 

 

Content 

Introduction: p. 337

Articles

Principles and regulations for the evaluation of clinical research funded by the pharmaceutical industry in Ethics Research Committees in Panama: p. 375

Bioethical reflections on the consent of persons with disabilities in health decision-making: p. 425

Reflections on pain, suffering and own existence: p. 463

The perfection of vulnerable lives. Genetic modification and disability: p. 519

Analysis of informed consent in cancer patients: a proposal for a decisional algorithm: p. 569

Overview

The Legalization of Abortion in Mexico City: Towards a Dignity of Women?: p. 587

Content

Introduction: p. 11

Articles

Suicide: the impact of Covid-19 on mental health: p. 41

Covid-19 and biopower: How to resist the normalization of crisis: p. 87

Proposal of an action guide to coordinate the last visits of relatives during the «last days life» of a Covid-19 patient in Mexico: p. 123

Covid-19: philosophical and gerontological reflections from adaptability and quality of life: p. 159

The Covid-19 pandemic in Mexico: The fundamental role of palliative care and bioethics: p. 197

Vaccines against Covid-19: Two ethical dilemmas to consider: p. 233

Ethical aspects of telemedicine in the face of Covid-19 pandemic: p. 271

Overview

Wuhan soup: p. 297

 
 

The year that we have just finished has been very difficult because of the pandemic and the confinement. For that reason, we have prepared a very special issue, which wants to celebrate first, the multiple teachings that we have acquired. Nevertheless, it is a different issue, because as you will read in the Introduction, it is about
the ethical dilemma of mental disability. These articles were written after a colloquium on this topic, held by the International Association of Catholic Bioethics (IACB) in Ottawa in June 2019.The Academic Director, Dr. William Sullivan, requested our Magazine to be able to publish the articles, which after fulfilling the requirements for peer review, could be seen together in one issue of the Journal.

While the edition of this issue is being prepared, the first anniversary
of the death of Professor Elio Sgreccia is commemorated,
which occurred on June 5, 2019. He was the greatest exponent of
ontological personalism, applied to Bioethics, and he was the founder
of the Institute and the Bioethics Center of the University of
the Sacro Cuore in Rome, in 1984. The Medicina e Morale magazine
also founded by him depends from the above-mentioned institutions,
and to which for several years our own magazine was
linked, through an agreement to publish and translate the articles
of the Italian magazine into Spanish. Currently, both magazines
are independent, and the Mexican one has been going out uninterruptedly
four times per year, for thirty years.
Elio Sgreccia has managed to create a school of thought, not
only through the formal teaching of the Institute, as well as its
countless publications and communications on social media, but
also due to the multiple dissemination activities, and the time he
worked in the Pontifical Academy of Life before and during his
presidency.

Issue number 2 of our magazine makes an emphasis on... articles on assisted reproduction techniques. The first one by Cabrera A. et al, points out through a very extensive study, which had been carried out in various Reproduction Biology Clinics in Mexico City, jointly with the international reports of the Latin American Network of Assisted Reproduction (RED LARA), that of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE).

The second article on this topic: «Bioethical analysis of the impact of Assisted Reproduction Techniques (ART) on the health of children and mothers», is an invitation to think about the consequences of the techniques. Those techniques which since 1993 (vol 4, Num 2, pp. 47-66 by Dr. Marcó Bach), that we had already published, but that in this article, we add more data about the impact on the mother and the child.

The third article, which without being focused on assisted reproduction, is directly linked in a philosophical reflection on the artificiality presented by Velázquez L., and which focuses on the adaptation of artificiality to the ontological nature of the person. It addresses about the tension of ethicity between what is natural and what is artificial.

Another interesting article is the analysis of the decriminalization of some drugs, such as the misrepresentation of good, for the sake of autonomy, and even the call for their use, such as the development of personality. Herrera Fragoso, considers this fact as a type of violence. This violence, is assumed to destroy Bioethics, bio jury and that «laws lose their nature of being for the benefit and human development», since they must be inspired by universal values that protect the human being.

Being the universal Good, and that does not exclude the Good of anybody else, the article presented by De los Ríos, about the Common Good, justly speaks about reductionism, and the lack of understanding, of what is Good, if society is excluded, to only include the individual Good, which I consider, a welfare.

Finally, an article on Bioethics and Religions, this time on Confucianism and women. In classical Confucianism, women had a very important social role, but always subject to men (father, husband, son, brother) and by age (mother, mother-in-law).

 

In this issue of Medicine and Ethics, various topics are addressed: research ethics, old age and stoicism, abortion, bio-law, medical and existential aspects of the bio-right, and the meaning of the disease.

The first article, «Bioethical reflections on old age from the stoicism of Seneca», by José Enrique Gómez Álvarez, addresses the ethical implications of the conception of old age in the stoicism of Seneca.

The second article, «Ethics and inappropriate behavior in research practice», by Jesús del Río Martínez and Diana del Río Valdés, analyze ethical aspects in the research process, or as they point out, the research system.

In «The Impact on the Decriminalization of Abortion in Maternal Mortality in Mexico», Madrazo et al. demonstrate that the decriminalization of abortion in 2007 in Mexico City, which among one of its justifications was to seek the reduction of maternal deaths caused by clandestine abortions, but the authors point out that he has not fulfilled that assumption.

In «Introduction to the conceptual categories of bio-law in legal discretion», by Alejandro Castaño Bedoya, the ontological and anthropological assumptions of various arguments in the law applied to bioethics are analyzed, such as physicalism or interactionist dualist theories.

Lourdes Velázquez, in «The medical aspect and the existential dimension of the disease: bioethical reflections», emphasizes the need to deepen the existential aspect of the disease as a part of the way of being and living of the human being.

The number closes with the review of the book «The Civilization of Anahuac: philosophy, medicine and science», by de José Enrique Gómez Álvarez.

Este número del final del año contiene artículos con enfoques múltiples y novedosos. Encabeza esta entrega el artículo sobre la paz, como sistema humanizador complejo, del Dr. Juajilbio y Otero, que aporta un estudio con una impecable metodología interdisciplinar.
Germán Zurriarán, de la Universidad de la Rioja, España, analiza los polos de la maternidad subrogada como un acto solidario y lo contrapone a la explotación de la mujer, y del hijo. 
El análisis que elabora el Dr. Herrera Fragoso sobre una resolución jurídica que se encuentra en revisión, la cual impulsa a la eugenesia, se trata de un claro ejemplo de la metodología que emplea la biojurídica, esta rama de la bioética que tiene tan importante desarrollo e importancia. 
La Dra. de los Ríos aborda el tema del género desde el enfoque de la vulnerabilidad, que si bien se maneja en la agenda pública, en la literatura ética no es habitual hablar de este aspecto sin victimizar a la persona. Y por último, este número concluye con un artículo sobre el cuidado del paciente geriátrico, desde el cuidado gerontológico.
Este artículo del Dr. Gómez Álvarez enfoca la calidad de vida que se busca en el cuidado de cualquier paciente crónico, como la integración de todas las interdisciplinas que forman parte de la gerontología.

 

This number presents, on one hand, an ethical and bioethical approach to surrogate maternity and the question its commercialization raises. On the other hand, it presents topics concerning law where it is proposed the access to systems  that allow people to know their genetic origins, the rights derived from the practices of incorporation of technologies into human brain and its implications in freedom. The same way, this number includes other topics as bioethical trainning in the education of bioethicists towards research and reflections in the end of life. 

This second issue of the Magazine opens with a great chapter by the National Commissioner of the National Commission Bioethic, Dr. Manuel Ruiz de Chávez, with the collaboration of Gabriela Pineda. In this article, the authors make an analysis about what has happened in Mexico with the Bioethics Hospital Committees, and the Ethics Committees on Research, which boosted and sustained in the different places of the country by the State Commissions on Bioethics, given their relationship with the medical, academic, research, and civil society groups sectors. Besides, it points out the requirements that can improve their operation.

In this new year of 2019, the Medicine and Ethics magazine turns three years of its on line setting, offering to our viewers its reading from the Open Journal System platform, which is friendly, and makes clear its processes. Besides, we have improved the requirements for authors and the ethical standards of the same. Our new year’s resolution, is to increase the variety of authors, so we will be very honored that our readers feel encouraged to write, and in accordance to the standards above cited, will send their valuable material to us.
The articles which are presented in this issue, have the common source of showing in all of them, how the scientific advances and legislative changes propose new reflections in Bioethics.

This year’s fourth issue presents two basic subject matters: One of them is about social bioethics, which is captured in articles about violence. The other subject matter deals with ethical decision making, and its anthropologic basis, which is exemplified in various topics of medical practice.

 

As you can see, in this issue we have increased the number of articles to seven, and in this occasion, also an overview of a really extraordinary book, which I personally recommend. All this issue includes articles about various and innovative subject matters. In the first article, related to Moral Anguish or Distress and futile treatments, and more specifically regarding the cognitive research on the perception of three Nursing students namely, Conoci, Cristofori, and Galletti, who point out a really new ethical pro Editorial

blem, and a very subtle one: it is the moral anguish felt, in this case by Nursing students, when during clinical practice they see that Ethics is limited to a set of deontological rules, which become insufficient for an Ethics of maximums and not of minimums, that furthermore, is the one required by the hyper medical specialization. The case has been studied using a special methodology, and I think it is a study, that should be replicated in other scenarios. From a management point of view, there are two articles which, although different, derive themselves from this subject matter. On his behalf, Mancini also addresses a very seldom explored subject matter: The one about experimenting on him/her self, as a research subject. The authorAs in previous issues, Claudio Sartea presents and explains to us, all the possible interpretations of a dissemination article, where his own conscientious objection is objected. Thus Sartea challenges this analysis, and supports the judicial and ethical legality, based on Human Rights on conscientious objection, which nowadays is, a debate issue in Mexico, where the intention is to suppress that duty/right (paraphrasing Sartea), which a physician has. Finally there are two articles that propose, one in an openly way, and the other one in a kind of hidden way, the narrative methodology, for Bioethics. Giardina S., and Spagnolo A., show to us The History of Medicine, using a series of small stories for that purpose. On his/her behalf Braga P., analyzes a movie picture from the Bioethics point of view. In this third issue, we wanted to share with you, these subject matters that are handled in a fresh and innovative manner, because in terms of Bioethics, the growth is a continuous process.
Martha Tarasco MD PhD Editor