REFOUNDING BIOMEDICAL ETHICS AT THE CROSSROADS OF CUBAN AND FRENCH EXPERIENCES

Abstract

A joint French-Cuban meeting on Biomedical Ethics
and New Biotechnologies was held in 2016. Anne Marie
Moulin recalls the ancient foundation of medical ethics
and its recent history. She points to the multiplication of
texts of reference, too often originated exclusively in the
Western and English-speaking world, and expresses her
anxiety facing the risk of an excessive bureaucratization of
bioethics and the markedly formal character of the texts,
marking a gap with the actual practices in the field. On
these subjects Cuba has provided reflections largely ignored
because of the embargo, original because of the specific
features of its health system: the close patient-family doctor relationship, the coherence of the team responsible for
the individual’s care, and overall the short path existing
between discovery and applications. All these orientations
foster new perspectives, which should be discussed further
during future meetings and exchange between French and
Cuban researchers.