The area of biomedicine is one of the fastes developing areas of science and technology. The perception of its possible and wxpected positive or negative impacts results in the growing number of bioethical discussions in scientific community, politics and public. Their intensity, focus and used methods differ from country to country. he authors of the prologue have tried to map the state of the art and expected development of bioethical discussion in the coutnries of Middle and Eastern Europe. In the beginning, they addressed the bioethical experts with short questionnaire from 7 "new" European coutries (Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia) and two "old" European coutries (Germany and Austria). In the end, seven experts have responde their question (Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Austria and Germany) and expressed their expectations and difficulties of the development of bioethical discussions and institutionalisations in their countries. The authors summarize in the prologue the most interesting results. and Gerhard Banse, Monika Bartíková.
The paper begins with the question of the participation of human subjects in biomedical research, pointing a way from the first principle of the Belmont Report towards the concept of autonomy as expressed by informed consent. From the use of informed consent in experimental medicine, the paper then moves to the application of informed consent in clinical practice. Further, the paper outlines the cultural and philosophical context of the transformation of medicine into biomedicine from the perspective of human subject research, discussing the concept which has played the key role in the ethical framework of both experimental and clinical medicine in the Czech Republic. Finally the paper provides some critical notes on the concept of informed consent and its practice in Czech healthcare., Josef Kuře., and Obsahuje poznámky a bibliografii
Aktuálnost Hippokratovy přísahy souvisí s možností jejího využití při řešení dilemat současné lékařské praxe. Z rešerší vyplývá, že téma Hippokratovy přísahy je i v dnešní době populární, i když rozličně charakterizované. Výstupy z rešerší byly doplněny výzkumem etických dilemat současné tuzemské lékařské praxe, jak je definují samotní lékaři. Z dotazníkového šetření vyplynulo celkem 36 dilemat, ta nejčetnější se dotýkala volby komu poskytnout drahou péči, léčby seniorů ve vysokém věku, eutanázie a nadbytečné administrativy. Každé dilema bylo podrobeno analýze, za účelem přiřazení základního etického principu, jehož se majoritně dotýká. Nejčastěji přiřazeným principem byl princip spravedlnosti, ve střední a stejné míře principy nonmaleficence a autonomie. Výzkum prokázal, že zvláště starší pacienti jsou rizikovou a ohroženou skupinou. Současné etické problémy v medicíně jsou složité, avšak deontologické zdůvodnění etických norem, se kterým pracuje i Hippokratova přísaha, může nabízet oporu před zásadním pochybením lékařů. Hippokratova přísaha a revitalizace jejích základních principů, by mohly být jedním z důležitých nástrojů k zažehnání nebezpečí absence etického jednání při řešení veškerých etických dilemat nejen v medicíně., Topicality of the Hippocratic oath is closely related to its usage to solve dilemmas in the contemporary medical practice. The vast amount of published literature clearly shows that the Hippocratic oath issue remains popular despite different forms of characterization. Information retrieval results were supplemented with questionnaire research on ethical dilemmas of current domestic medical practice as defined by the physicians themselves. The conducted research outcomes comprised a total of 36 dilemmas. The most frequent were dealing with the delivery of expensive care, treatment of old age seniors, euthanasia, and excessive paperwork. Each dilemma was then analyzed in details in order to assign respective basic ethical principles. The most frequently assigned principle was equity followed by nonmaleficence and autonomy. The research has confirmed that particularly older patients represent a risk and endangered group. Contemporary ethical problems in medicine are rather complex, but deontological substantiation of the ethical standards contained in the Hippocratic oath can offer an efficient support to eliminate causes of medical errors. The Hippocratic oath and revitalization of its cornerstones could become an important tool to prevent extinction of ethical behaviour when solving a wide range of ethical dilemmas, not only in medicine., and Přemysl B. Hanák, Kateřina Ivanová.