Contributions of the Federal Council of Medicine to bioethics

Abstract

Exactly 22 years separate the publishing of Bioethics: bridge to the future, by the American cancerologist Van Rensselaer Potter 1 , from the arrival of this approach in Brazil. The Federal Council of Medicine (CFM) was responsible for presenting to the national scientific and academic community the first publication to deal with this topic in depth 2 .Thus, in 1993, Revista Bioética was created, with the mission of stimulating reflection on issues that, although seemingly theoretical, have repercussions on the daily routine of care and on the relationship established between physicians and patients and with the world around them 2 .Over the years, the journal has consolidated its position as a thematic reference at international level, being present on some of the world's main online publishing platforms, and with content available in full in Portuguese, Spanish and English 3 .However, this is only one of the numerous contributions of CFM to bioethics. As the institution was preparing to host the 16th World Conference on Bioethics, Medical Ethics and Health Law, the opportunity to take a look at the trajectory taken so far arose.Created in 1956, CFM was born with the aim of standardizing medical practice in Brazil, supervising it and judging situations of disrespect for the rules in force. Since its inception, medical ethics guides the activity of the system formed by CFM and Regional Councils of Medicine, materializing in the consecutive publishing of codes of professional conduct elaborated-each on the due period-in line with legal and scientific advances, and with human and social relations 4 .The most recent and currently in force is materialized in CFM Resolution 2,217/2015 5 , which introduced innovations such as the provision of palliative care, research involving children, strengthening of patient autonomy and rules for assisted reproduction.In the 1980s, CFM strengthened its political vocation as a privileged agent in the great national debates that led, for example, to the creation of the Unified Health System (SUS), the National Immunization Program (PNI) and the National Program for the Prevention and Combat of AIDS, not by chance contemporaneous with the first issue of Revista Bioética, which was dedicated exclusively to works that analyzed different issues related to the hitherto unknown HIV epidemic.