Law and Bioethics

   CONTENTS  

Foreword

Research Structures

Energy, Environment, and Biodiversity

Humanities and Ethics

Culture and Education

Society and Development

Information and Communication Technology

Biology and Health

Research Structures and Researchers

About

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A legal view on bioethical problems

Abortion, euthanasia, assisted reproduction, genetic engineering, and organ transplants are discussed. To discuss the legal implications of bioethical problems that exert an effect on science and society, PUCRS has supported the Research Group on Law and Bioethics, which has promoted studies focused on the interface between these two fields of knowledge since 2004.

Coordinated by Professor Paulo Vinicius Sporleder de Souza, researchers address subjects related to the criminal, civil, constitutional, and environmental fields involving basic bioethical topics, including the onset of human life, its artificiality, its end, and the concern for the remaining living beings. All these topics involve features of Brazilian legislation, thus strengthening the academic production on Medical Law and Genetic Law.

Hosted by the Graduate Program in Criminal Science (PPGCrim) of the School of Law, this group develops studies along five lines of research that have contributed to the creation of two new disciplines at PPGCrim: Criminal Law and Genetics and Bioethical and Criminal Principles of Medical Criminal Law.

Of the ongoing research projects, one project addresses the age-related ability to consent to medical-surgical interventions. In an article published in Revista Brasileira de Ciências Criminais based on the specialized literature and court jurisprudence, the authors argue that individuals are able to make such decisions beginning at 14 years of age. This study also problematizes the legitimacy of medical interventions as a function of that criminal problem and discusses whether the consent provided by individuals who have been rated as incompetent from the bioethical and criminal perspectives is valid.

The group’s activities are directly associated with the Institute of Bioethics of PUCRS and include seminars, meetings, and a series of lectures that target professors and under- and postgraduate students. The group’s main inter-institutional partnership is with the Bioethical Society of Rio Grande do Sul (Sorbi).