Bioética e segurança biológica

Abstract

Currently, in addition to the concern with epidemics caused by natural or even accidental occurrence, there is great international concern about the deliberate use of biological agents as weapons. This thesis addresses ethical issues related to biological security, especially those concerning the responsibility of professionals and researchers in conducting so-called "dual-use research" and non-proliferation of biological weapons. On the basis of a bioethical approach to the subject, this work proposes: 1) To analyze the documents of the discussions, considerations and agreements relevant to the theme, held at the meetings of the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological and Toxin Weapons (CPAB); 2) To develop a literature review related to the subject; and 3) To discuss, from the perspective of bioethics, the conflicts and moral dilemmas of conducting dual-use research and the proliferation of biological weapons. For the identification of the discussions in the BWC, the text of the Convention, the reports of the Conferences of revisions and the reports of the meetings of experts and of States Parties were analyzed. For the search of the publications, an integrative review of the literature was performed in the PubMed database. As a result, the analysis of the synthesis of the selected sections in the BWC documents and the analysis of the 32 publications obtained in the review were presented. Bioethics was used as a theoretical tool for analysis and the Universal Declaration of Bioethics and Human Rights of UNESCO as a normative international reference. As a synthesis of the main points of discussion were listed: the adoption of voluntary codes of conduct for scientists; the need for awareness-raising, and education; the responsibility of researchers, institutions, sponsors and governments; the need for the application of applied ethics and the exercise of ethical control. Noting the difficulty of consensus in the international discussions on bioethics issues, especially in the issues related to scientific and technological advances, this study points to the need to expand and deepen in the BWC the discussion about the application of ethical control as a concrete measure of its implementation.