Abstract

BETANCOURT REYES, Gilberto Lázaro. A current ethical dilemma: therapeutic savageness or adequate therapeutic effort?. Rev.Med.Electrón. [online]. 2017, vol.39, n.4, pp. 975-986. ISSN 1684-1824.

Contemporary medicine is more and more related with the use of modern, very sophisticated and powerful technologies offering possibilities without precedents for life extension. As a consequence of this technological development, new conflicts of ethical character arise and proliferate. The adequate practice of the therapeutic efforts is still a theme of medical reflection in force, demanded not only by the scientific community, but also by the whole society. The main objective of this work is carrying out a brief theoretical reflection, on the basis of an ethical analysis of the development reached by science and technology because of the Scientific Technical Revolution and its influence in the field of Medicine, specifically in the Intensive Care Units, due to the ethical problems this scientific and technological advances cause and the power given to the health teams working in these units for deciding between life and death, between therapeutic savageness and the adequacy  of the therapeutic effort.

Keywords : therapeutic savageness; life support measures; therapeutic effort adequacy; right to die.

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