Bioethics is ... Principles and subject of bioethics. Bioethics in Russia

Each sphere of professional human activity corresponds to its own kinds of professional ethics. At the same time, they all have certain specific features.

Ethics is a discipline that examines the moral aspects of human behavior. Its study introduces us to all the diversity of norms and relations between people. All kinds of professional ethics are certain rules. They consider the order and patterns of internal regulation of a person. Ethical ideals are used as a basis for this. One of the types of this discipline concerns the medical sphere.

Medical Ethics

This doctrine acquaints us with the high moral image that a person must possess in whose hands the life of his patients is. To date, all the basic rules of this discipline are contained in a document called the "Ethical Code of a Russian Doctor". It was adopted in 1994. The traditional ethics of the doctor is designed to address issues of personal qualities and relationships between the doctor and the patient.

Bioethics

Life does not stand still. At the present stage of the development of society, arose the need to create a certain form of professional medical ethics. This doctrine is designed to delineate the permissible boundaries in which the manipulation of human life and death is permitted. All these actions must certainly observe the morality and health of the patient. And here bioethics comes to protect human life.

History of development

Bioethics is a complex phenomenon taking place in modern culture. He appeared in the USA in the 60s-70s of the last century. The term "bioethics" was proposed by the American oncologist Potter in 1970. It was he who urged doctors and biologists to join their efforts to ensure decent living conditions for people. According to Potter, bioethics is not just a science of survival. This is a new wisdom, combining the knowledge of the biological industry and existing universal values.

As for the very term "bioethics", the concept, more precisely, its content, has changed after a while. Interdisciplinary studies of moral, anthropological, legal and social problems came to the forefront , the emergence of which was promoted by the latest reproductive genetic and transplant biomedical technologies.

In the seventies of the last century in America, the first educational and research centers were created, where bioethics was studied. This attracted attention to the problems of religious figures, journalists, and politicians studied in this discipline. Interested in some issues and the general public.

The development of bioethics in the next decade allowed it to gain recognition in the countries of Western Europe. In the nineties, much attention was paid to the study of this discipline in Eastern Europe (including Russia), as well as in Asia (primarily in China and Japan).

The main task

Bioethics is a teaching designed to identify differences in attitudes towards the most complex moral problems arising from the development of the progress of biomedical practice and science. This discipline is designed to answer such questions:

- Is it possible to engage in human cloning?
- Is the creation by genetic methods of a special "breed" of a person with high intellectual and physical qualities?
- Do you need the consent of relatives if the deceased is planning to take organs for transplantation to seriously ill people?
- Do I need to tell the patient that he is terminally ill? Etc.

The task of bioethics is to find socially acceptable and morally grounded solutions to such issues. Of course, there is a legitimate doubt as to whether medical bioethics in general is necessary? There is an oath of Hippocrates. She has been teaching morality lessons to doctors for many centuries. In the preservation of life on our planet, many leading physicists also play an active role. They are organizing a movement calling for the banning of nuclear weapons tests. Lessons of morality are presented to mankind and biologists, fighting for the protection of our environment.
However, Hippocratic ethics and bioethics have certain differences. The first of these two exercises is purely corporate. Over the centuries, it views the doctor as a moral subject, called upon to fulfill his duty to the patient. The sick person is considered an individual suffering. He is passive and does not participate in making an important decision for his life. The subject of bioethics is the patient as an active moral subject. At the same time, he is able to enter into dialogical or even competitive relations with scientists and doctors.

Features

New discipline does not abolish traditional values, including charity and charity, moral responsibility of doctors and the principle of non-harm to the patient. Only in today's cultural and social situation, all these moments receive a new sound and significance.

The subject of bioethics is the uniqueness and uniqueness of the personality of each individual. This discipline recognizes the right of every person to independently make the most important decisions that affect his life.

It is worth noting that biologists or doctors as experts have knowledge about the method of human cloning. However, they can not admit such actions. This is beyond the boundaries of their professional competence. That is why one of the features of bioethics is its development with the participation of specialists of various disciplines. In this list are biologists and psychologists, doctors and philosophers, politicians and lawyers, etc. And it is not surprising, because the problems that arise in connection with the development of medicine and biology are so diverse and complex that their solution is possible only with the joint efforts of people who have certain knowledge and experience.

Bioethics has another important feature: history has long been proven that imposing a single system of national, ideological and other values on society is very dangerous. That is why bioethics is not just studying the moral problems that arise in the development of society. With her participation, various institutions are created that are characteristic of pluralistic societies. An example of this can serve as ethical committees, working in hospitals, research centers.

What does bioethics pay attention to?

Morality and health - this is the basis that serves to develop appropriate recommendations by modern science on moral relations. It considers such basic problems:

- euthanasia;
- suicide;
- transplantology;
- determination of the fact of death;
- carrying out experiments on humans and animals;
- the relationship between the doctor and the patient;
- organization of hospices;
- attitude towards people who are mentally deficient;
- child-bearing (surrogate motherhood, genetic engineering, etc.).

The problems of bioethics concern the ethical side of such actions as sterilization and contraception, as well as the artificial termination of pregnancy. All of them represent modern forms of intervention of medicine in reproductive function.

Consider, for example, abortion. Does he violate the basic principle of the Hippocratic oath, which says: "Do no harm"? Can it be carried out ethically? If yes, always or only in certain cases? The answers to these questions depend on the moral principles and professional preparedness of the doctor.

The problems of bioethics also concern artificial insemination. On the one hand, the newest reproductive technologies affect the nature of the marriage itself, which is the most important human value. On the other hand, for some spouses this is the only way to have a child. Bioethics in this case calls to adhere to the point where artificial insemination helps a desperate woman, without turning this manipulation into a kind of experiment.

A controversial issue, considered by bioethics, is surrogate motherhood. With this method, a completely different woman is brought into the uterus from the biological parents by a fertilized egg. This surrogate mother is needed for bearing a child. After giving birth, she gives the baby to biological parents. On the one hand, these are the manipulations performed on the child's physical nature, on the other - the only chance for some couples to create a full-fledged family.

Fierce disputes continue to be fought around such a problem as human cloning, possible with the use of the latest developments in genetic engineering. In the discussion of the moral side of this issue, biologists and doctors, politicians and philosophers take part. Do not ignore this problem and the clergy. At present, there are two completely opposite points of view. One of them proceeds from the assumption that cloning is ethical and safe for man and society. Supporters of this view believe that cloning is the path to immortality and the elimination of diseases. But there is an opposite opinion. His supporters believe that such manipulation is immoral. In addition, it carries a potential danger, since science can not yet predict all the possible consequences of this experiment.

Very complex legal and ethical problems are generated by transplantology. For today, heart and liver, lung and bone marrow are transplanted, etc. Problems in this area relate to the responsibilities and rights of the donor, as well as his relatives, medical workers, to ascertain the fact of irreversible death.

One of the most hotly debated ethical issues to date concerns euthanasia. It is the deliberate acceleration of the death of a patient who is considered incurable. Euthanasia is designed to stop the patient's suffering. This action is contrary to the views of all religious faiths, as well as the oath of Hippocrates. But at the same time, the final solution to this issue is not considered.

Basic principles of discipline

In bioethics, there are basic concepts. They rely on science to solve the urgent problems of our time. Basic principles of bioethics:

- Respect for human dignity;
- non-mediation of evil and the creation of good;
- autonomy of the person;
- observance of justice.

Science adheres to four rules. This is confidentiality and truthfulness, informed voluntary consent and inviolability with respect to private life. The principles of bioethics, together with the rules, form a kind of ethical coordinates that characterize the attitude towards the patient as an individual.

Development of bioethics in Russia

The prerequisites for the development of the discipline in question were manifested in our country in the early nineties. However, this does not mean that bioethics in Russia arose only at the end of the last century. On the contrary, most biomedical technologies were first created in our country. An example of this can serve as an apparatus that allows performing artificial circulation. It was created by S.S. Bryukhonenko as early as 1926. In the same year, the opening of the world's first Institute of Blood Transfusion was held. In addition, in 1931 Yu.Yu. Voronym in the clinical conditions was carried out allotransplantation of the kidney. Remarkable was also in 1937. Then they conducted the world's first operation for implanting an artificial heart muscle. Supervised this experiment. Demikhov, and he had an internship with Christian Bernard.

It was in Russia, for the first time in the world in 1920, all restrictions of legislative acts on the artificial termination of pregnancy were lifted. In the twenties of the last century, Russian scientists of the school of A.S. Serebrovsky conducted a number of fundamental studies, as a result of which it was possible to prove the complex structure of the gene.

A wide range of works on various areas of medical technology in the USSR was conducted constantly and very successfully. However, the ethics of scientific research in Russia during the reign of the Soviet government could not have been formed. One of the reasons for this was the ideology of the state. Science in the USSR was considered not only the productive force of society, but also the highest human-forming value of culture.

However, despite this, bioethics in Russia has gradually begun to gain ground. Thus, the Soviet philosopher ITT Frolov raised the question of the value of scientific achievements from the point of view of the human good. In 1995, the first published manuscripts of M.K.Perov. This Russian methodologist, back in the 1960s, formulated the idea that science is blind to everything human.

A new stage in the development of bioethics

At the end of the last century, Russia took the path of democratization of society. This became the main prerequisite for the fact that bioethics began to develop intensively. The concept of this discipline was constantly fixed not only on research, but also on the publishing, theoretical and educational levels.

In the organizational system of scientific institutions in Russia at present there are special structural units. They include the bioethics sector, which works at the Institute of Human Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the laboratory of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences "Axiology of Cognition and the Ethics of Science" and many others.

In 2000 the state educational standard was adopted in Russia. According to this document, the discipline "Bioethics" became mandatory in the training of specialists in medical schools of the country. This approach was approved by the 1995 Teaching and Methodological Conference, which addressed issues of humanities education in the higher pharmaceutical and medical educational institutions of the Russian Federation. Introduction to bioethics was recommended as a separate course in the preparation of students attending senior courses.

In 1995, a special program saw the light. It was established at the Institute for Retraining and Advanced Studies of Social and Human Sciences Teachers at Moscow State University. Lomonosov Moscow State University. This program was intended for teaching staff, teaching students in the specialty "Biomedical Ethics".

At present, you can get acquainted with the problems of modern ethical questions of medicine in the specialized literature. Very popular in this area are the magazines "Man" (editor-in-chief - BG Yudin), as well as "Medical Law and Ethics" (editor-in-chief - Mylnikov IS). For students of medical universities also published literature, which addresses bioethics. Yudin and Tishchenko, Ignatyev, Ivanyushkin, Siluyanova, Korotkikh are the authors of some works devoted to this topic.

Philosophical aspects

At present, the discipline that studies the moral aspects of the relationship between modern medicine and man covers numerous problems. Thanks to bioethics, the individual's understanding in his ethical and natural-biological aspects deepens and dramatically expands. The questions considered by this doctrine are on the verge of two sciences. It's anthropology and biology. As a key moment of this science are the moments of searching for the true essence of man.

Recently, the process of shaping the bioethical worldview of the society has been increasingly taking place. This is facilitated by two reasons - global and local. The first of them is connected with the probability of dangerous consequences of scientific and technological progress in medicine and biology, which are accompanied by the constant emergence of new problem situations of a moral and ethical nature. This situation affects to a certain extent the interests of the whole human society. The dynamism of this process is constantly increasing. This is due to the growing democratization of social relations. At the same time, the human right to life, to health, to death and to receive information is considered as one of the most fundamental.

The second reason for the development of bioethics, local, is determined by the specific nature of the development of this science. Here the humanization of the life of the whole society and the individual, the process that causes the transformation of medical and traditional ethics, the technology of medicine, etc., exerts its influence. All these factors influence the development of bioethics in both positive and negative terms.

For today in our country there is no unequivocal attitude to the actualization of this discipline. However, even one who realizes the humanistic significance of bioethical problems recognizes the process of forming an appropriate worldview. Sometimes this is perceived as a way of life imposed on us by the West. It is believed that this process is capable of undermining the traditions and foundations of our society.

There is absolutely the opposite opinion. Some believe that bioethics in Russia simply does not get accustomed, and the worldview that corresponds to this doctrine is unlikely to form. It is explained by the fact that in our country there are other cultural, religious and social traditions, a different mentality and psychology.

However, the process of forming a bioethical worldview is underway. It requires philosophical comprehension of some traditional problems. Among them, the definition of the essence of a person, his life and death, treatment and recovery, illness and health, etc.

Biomedicine is currently developing at an incredibly rapid pace. Its contradictory successes in many respects cause for some people the desire to somehow order the achievements of medicine and biology, placing them according to the degree of risk. This will allow society to be as ready as possible for all possible consequences for it.