Comites de bioetica

The constant development of new scientific advances results in the development of new ethical challenges that must be addressed. The Committees of Bioethics constitute a good way of confronting these dilemmas. In these committees, professionals of the scientific and humanistic fields can consider these questions from different perspectives. There are three categories of Committees, each one of them with different faculties: 1) The Committees of Ethics in Clinical Research, regulated by the 1990 Law of Drugs, and which role is to guarantee the rightness of the clinical research protocols and the protection of the patients enrolled; 2) The National Committees of Bioethics, temporary or permanent, which role is to analyze questions of general interest; and 3) The Committees of Ethics in Patient Care, and which role is to solve the conflicts that arise in the care of hospitalized patients. The first committees were constituted in the 60's in the United States, and addressed the selection criteria for dyalisis in patients with chronic renal failure, and the definition of brain death. The Bioethics was further developed by the American Institutes of Bioethics, like the Hastings Center and the Kennedy Institute of Ethics and, in Spain, the Instituto Borja de Bioetica. The Committees of Bioethics have shown to be efficient tools, and are regarded with increasing interest.