The experts gathered at the ‘XV Seminar on Biomedicine, Ethics and Human Rights’ advocated for promotion bioethics to face the threats of growing mechanization and dehumanization of health care.
“The most relevant challenges we face in the area Biomedicine, ethics and law are the necessary modification of health policies, as a response to demographic changes, as well as the application of new technologies and the redefinition of responsible experts in not only a technical-scientific, but also axiological sense”, said the president Scientific and organizational committee of this meeting and professor of legal medicine at UCM, Fernando Bandrés Moya.
In this sense, during the meeting, as Professor Benjamín Herreros explained, issues related to health policies or, as Sara Bandrés added, the advantages and challenges of techno-consent will be discussed. «Health policies of the future and the fragile sustainability of the Spanish health system It is one of the main topics of the meeting, with leaders of public opinion such as Félix Lobo, Koldo Martínez Urionabarrenetxea or Esther del Campo,” said Herreros.
According to opinion Banderas, the challenge society has been facing for some time is the technological age, where human nature, freedom and consent take on a new dimension under the protection of new technologies. “It must be faced without fear, but with consistency and hand in hand with technoethics, which emerges from the technological age to protect human nature,” he added.
Informed consent, considered in Article 10 of the General Health Law and in Law 41/2002 on patient autonomy, is a voluntary and free act for which information has been previously obtained, which must be adequate, understandable and true.
“In the case of techno-consent, the main question we ask ourselves is how we should prove that the information given to the patient is really true. (even more so in this day and age, where ‘fake news’ is spreading), that the recipient really understands that information and that it is appropriate in such a special area as healthcare, where the recipient is a patient and therefore in a vulnerable situation,” he added.
On the other hand, two new books will be presented at the congress, which try to improve the knowledge and teaching of bioethics from different perspectives, and one of them uses cinema as the main teaching aid.
is around “Clinical cases in bioethics”, edited by ASISA Foundation and intended for practical learning of bioethics; and the other on ‘Cinematography and Bioethics. Proposal of teaching methodology’, where along with the cinema, a proposal for teaching bioethics was made and many films were shown as examples.
Similarly, in the seminar will show ‘Kayros, the history of bioethics’, a documentary which aims to raise awareness of the importance of bioethical issues in our society and which is well received. Likewise, the Interuniversity Research Group for Health Policies is presented at this forum.