OPPORTUNITIES FOR TEACHING THE DISCIPLINE «BIOMEDICAL ETHICS» IN THE FORMATION OF PROFESSIONAL AND MORAL QUALITIES FOR MEDICAL STUDENTS

The article reveals a brief history of bioethics and the relevance of the subject of biomedical ethics in a medical university for the formation of professional and moral qualities of a future doctor. The main content of this discipline in domestic and foreign education is revealed. Topical issues of the theory and methodology of teaching bioethics in a medical university are described, including the ones based on the author’s pedagogical experience. The main problems in teaching biomedical ethics at the beginning of the XXI century are noted.

The right to exit the footnote: a story of rediscovery and revival of Fritz Jahr’s bioethics (with special regard to Italy)

Despite the numerous works evaluating Fritz Jahr’s importance for bioethics, there is still a widespread practice at best to put his name in some of the footnotes. The similar practice is recognized in Italy and the full appreciation of his work – contrary to the reception of Van Rensselaer Potter’s work – is still to come. First part of this paper is concerned with the mentioned uncommendable practice as a main motive of the article. Second part shortly captures the main facts about life and work of Fritz Jahr. Third part is dedicated to summary of extensive work of Van Rensselaer Potter. Next part reveals the trends and practices in Italy concerning the reception of those two «fathers of bioethics» and delineate the lines of research based on their work. In conclusion the authors call for caution and attentive approach to history of bioethics because mixing those research lines could be at least deceptive if not completely unfruitful.

BIOETHICAL AND LEGAL ASPECTS OF THE USE OF ANIMALS FOR SCIENTIFIC PURPOSES

This work scrutinizes modern bioethical concepts of the use of animals for scientific purposes, as well as legal aspects of its use. Initially, the authors present a brief excursion into the history of bioethics and then focus on the modern concept of ethical attitude to the animals used for scientific purposes. The authors analyze the EU Directive on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes, as well as the EAEU acts and by-laws of the EAEU member states, and conclude that it is necessary to adopt a supranational act within the EAEU that will regulate the use of animals for scientific purposes in accordance with the principles of reduction, replacement and refinement.

THE PROTESTING SELF OF BIOETHICS AND THE PATIENT

The article considers the history of bioethics formation as a human rights movement aimed at establishing patient autonomy and limiting the practice of uncontrolled medical manipulation of human body, biomedical experimentation on people in the name of science, “public good” and other values. It is shown that the forms of expression and content of the statements of the protesting bioethical expert and the content turned out to be extremely diverse and based on conflicting ethical principles, actually demonstrating total rejection and confrontation of various conceptual arguments and often not contributing to the development of a universal, acceptable to all stakeholders ethical position. The article considers the peculiarities of bioethical protest and philosophical reasoning in connection with the emergence in the field of modern medicine of the diagnosis of brain death and gives a general idea of the intense public perception of this diagnosis.