Romanian Journal of Bioethics, Vol.10, No.

4, October-December 2012

AND THE CHALLENGES OF THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD

review of: Etica delle Professionni Sanitare, Piccin-Nuova Libraria Publishing House, Padova, 2009, authors: Mos Furlan, Alessandra Bernardi and Renzo Pergoraro

Cristina Gavrilu* Daniela oitu**

At its 4th edition, the paper Etica delle Professionni Sanitare (Piccin Nuova Libraria Publishing House, Padova, 2009) is a real editorial success. The authors Mos Furlan, Alesandra Bernardi and Renzo Pergoraro managed, throughout the 615 pages, to offer valuable information and to challenge the reader to take a critical and reflexive stand on a series of ethicalissues which challenge the medical world. With a major interest in the field of ethics and medicine, and not only, the authors succeed in creating a veritable treaty of ethics with debates on aspects of philosophic, moral and sociojuridical nature. The presentation and the comments to the professional codes show how the moral and philosophic ideas and principles are concretely reflected, at professional level, into codes that regulate the professional conduct and decisions. The authors work at Centro di Studi e Ricerche in Etica e Ambiente, Economia, Medicina e Societ of the Lanza Foundation, in Padova, Italy.

*PhD Lecturer, Gr.T.Popa " University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Iasi, Romania; Alexandru Ioan CuzaUniversity, Iasi, Faculty of Philosophy and Political Sciences, email : cristina _gavriluta@yahoo.fr **PhD Lecturer, Gr.T.Popa" University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Iasi, Romania; Alexandru Ioan CuzaUniversity, Iasi, Faculty of Philosophy and Political Sciences, email : danielag_soitu@yahoo.co.uk 102

At its 4th edition, the paper Etica delle Professionni Sanitare (Piccin Nuova Libraria Publishing House, Padova, 2009) is a real editorial success. The authors Mos Furlan, Alesandra Bernardi and Renzo Pergoraro managed, throughout the 615 pages, to offer valuable information and to challenge the reader to take a critical and reflexive stand on a series of ethicalissues which challenge the medical world. With a major interest in the field of ethics and medicine, and not only, the authors succeed in creating a veritable treaty of ethics with debates on aspects of philosophic, moral and sociojuridical nature. The presentation and the comments to the professional codes show how the moral and philosophic ideas and principles are concretely reflected, at professional level, into codes that regulate the professional conduct and decisions. The authors work at Centro di Studi e Ricerche in Etica e Ambiente, Economia, Medicina e Societ of the Lanza Foundation, in Padova, Italy. The Lanza Foundation is a private organization, with 25 year experience in the field of applied ethics; it carries out studies, researches and applied projects focused on the respect for human dignity, freedom and social justice. The challenges of the contemporary world that emerge from the scientific and technological development, as well as from the changes at the level of the social mentality are widely discussed in interesting chapters on euthanasia, abortion, cloning, organ transplantation, HIV infection and AIDS, in vitro fertilisation, disabilities
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etc. Their purpose is to clarify and complete, with rich and updated information the issues and concerns of the contemporary world regarding the management of freedom and integrity in a constantly changing world. The theme approached into this paper aims to improving the already existing literature on ethical themes in Romania. Among the works published in our country, we mention: The Ethics Treaty published in 2006 at Polirom Publishing House and coordinated by Peter Singer. The Fifth Part: Applied Ethics (p. 301-425) emphasizes two of the practical aspects of ethics in the medical professions: euthanasia and abortion. A focus on the profession of medicine can be found in papers like: Bioethics. Famous Cases (authors: Beatrice Ioan, Cristina Gavrilovici and Vasile Astrstoae, Junimea Publishing House, Iai, 2005), Genetics versus Bioethics (authors: Vasile Astrstoae and Ortansa Stoica, Polirom Publishing House, Iai, 2002), The Ethics and Bioethics Expertise (Mihaela Frunz, Limes Publishing House, Cluj Napoca, 2010), Medical Bioethics (authors: Ioan Zanc and Iustin Lupu, Iuliu Haeganu Medical Publishing House, Cluj Napoca, 2001), The Ethical Communication and Social Responsibility, (Sandu Frunza, Tritonic Publishing House, Bucuresti, 2011), Bioethics An European Perspective (authors: Gh. Scripcaru, coord. and Vasile Astrstoae, C. Scripcaru, Anca Indrei and L.L. Indrei, The Centre for Studies and Documentation in Bioethics and The Philosophy of Medicine, Iai, 1995) and, last but not least, The Romanian Journal of Bioethics.

Similar to the abovementioned papers, the first chapters of the work we analyse provides solid information about the theoretical dimension of ethics. Here, ethics is shown as science and scholastic subject, whose fundamentals rely on universal principles and values: the wellbeing and the human dignity. An important chapter refers to the human rights. It includes European conventions and declarations, as well as important international documents dedicated to the human rights and bioethics. The reader can thus notice the existence of international regulations which protect the rights of individuals from scientific and biomedical research. This wide legislative frame tries to cover a whole range of types and ethical issues that emerge in the nowadays society marked by cultural and religious pluralism. Though the authors consider that It is not possible to fit into an exact frame the different ethical forms / formulas which are present in the contemporary society (p. 39), they present and develop seven types of ethics: historical or relativist, social, utilitarian, situational, subjective and naturalistic, logical positivistic and Christian. Each type presented in the paper has a certain perspective on human wellbeing and represents the viewpoints of philosophy and thinking (Nietzsche, Macuse, Kirkegaard, Toma DAuqino, Spencer, Freud, Goethe etc.) in which the human values and morals emphasize different elements: from social to moral and religious ones. The philosophical discourse is completed by a juridical moral approach. The Chapter on The Right and The Moral tries to offer answers to some fully justified questions of a
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modern, normative society that values the juridical regulations. Any attempt to formulate mandatory norms for bringing divergent behaviours to a common ground is still challenging. In essence, the presentation and explanation of the positive right, of the characteristics of the legal and moral norms, the deeper understanding of the historical evolution of the moral juridical ratio, with its specific differences and coherence, represent a theoretical endeavour to show the ratio between the law and moralitybased orders (p. 77). The analysis of ethics is highlighted by the emphasis on the conscience as an important variable in understanding this phenomenon and building a coherent discourse with practical and legal implications. The authors start from Hoffmans premise according to which the conscience is the centre of the person. Consequently, a persons moral choices are seen as secondary choices of the human conscience and one of the consciences roles is to respect the law. The whole debate organized on concepts like values, moral, conscience, juridical norms underlies the deontological and professional codes in the medical field and not only. Their presentation and explanation in the pages of the present paper show how values and morals are assumed as desirable norms and behavioural formulas. All these theoretical fundaments are set to prepare the approach of the concept of bioethics. The authors emphasise the importance of bioethics using the definition given by W.T. Reich in Encyclopaedia of Bioethics (volume I, XIX), and also its interdisciplinary nature, where biology, medicine, anthropology, sociology and

philosophy meet. The broad segment covered by bioethics shows that it represents a science of life which regards not only health problems, but also of the human life, a science of the conditions and manifestations of the whole living organisms and of the whole vital processes. (p.165). Thus, bioethics is a science of life, of the living. The scientific challenges of the (post) modern world make it not only an extremely actual science: its studies and researches are reflected in codes, norms, regulations and good practices in the fields which state the responsibility towards the human being and everything that is living. For this reason, the care, in general, and the care for the ill persons, in particular, represents in the authors opinion, not only a science, but an art which involves the respect for the professional secret and for the patients informed consent. All these references and clarifications introduce some of the most recent themes. Thus, the authors develop special parts of ethics which concern the medical and scientific

fields, categories and social practices, and also social phenomena like: the ethics in the case of disabled persons, addiction and ethical problems, infectious diseases and the body through the lens of ethics, abortion, artificial insemination, sterilization, organ transplantation, biomedical experiments and genetics, euthanasia, suicide, reanimation, all being analysed from the perspective of the principles of bioethics. Each of the themes presented above has a rigorous and competent approach that allows the reader to reflect on how important is the respect for the other. To conclude, the otherness in its different perspectives represents the main topic of the book, and the authors way of building an ethical discourse on this ground recommends the work to the wide audience. Etica delle professioni sanitare is a reliable paper that should be read and used in the current practice by healthcare professionals and the others. Acknowledgement: Work of C.G. & D.S. supported from the program POSDRU/89/1.5/S/61879

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.