The Bioethical Issue in the Context of the Journal of Medical Sciences of Havana, 2002-2016

Abstract

Introduction: Since its foundation, the Revista Habanera de Ciencias Médicas has published many papers about Bioethics.
Objective: To characterize the way in which the bioethical issue has been based on the published papers in the journal in the course of its 15 years of existence.
Material and Method: It’s realized a descriptive transversal research supported in a platform of quantitative and qualitative techniques. Were studied all the published papers in the 15 volumes and 69 numbers issues by the HJMS, between 2002 and 2016. Were specified the variables that could reflect the bioethical content, a guide of analysis of bibliographic sources was applied and the information was processed with descriptive statistics.
Results: As results, it’s identified 326 papers requiring an special ethical treatment, 154 (47,2%) did not receive it. Among the 172 papers with some ethical considerations the bioethical approach prevailed; 107, in 84 clinical cases were a lack of ethical reflection in its presentation. 31,4% of the papers with ethical treatment were short communications. A large proportion (89%) of the papers with bioethical approach considered the discipline as an applied ethics. It was shown a balance between the consequentialist models (28%), the self reference approach (27%) and the environmental-biopolitics model (21%).
Conclusions: It´s concluded that the HJMS has kept the publication of papers with bioethical issues. However, the journal must improve the educative work addressed to the authors and to preserve the obtained balance between the different methodological and theoretical models of bioethical analysis.

Keywords: bioethics; medical ethics; health ethics; scientific research ethics; applied ethics.