Entre el 21 y 24 de Enero del presente año se celebró en Quito, Ecuador, la XV Asamblea de la “Asociación Latinoamericana de Academias Nacionales de Medicina [ALANAM], España y Portugal”. Uno de los principales asuntos examinados en dicho cónclave fue el de la Clonación Humana –tema que se encuentra en el centro del debate del vínculo entre ética y ciencia, pues conlleva, de una parte, la promesa de beneficios incalculables para la humanidad, si bien, de otra, puede poner en riesgo el destino de la propia vida humana.

Las cuestiones en debate: 1° ¿Cuándo comienza la vida humana? 2° ¿Es lícito crear embriones por clonación para implantarlos y crear nuevos seres humanos? ¿Puede considerarse la clonación como una forma alternativa de reproducción asistida? 3° ¿Es lícito crear embriones para destruirlos— y cultivar sus células con el propósito de curar enfermedades? 4° ¿Qué alternativas existen para la obtención de células troncales para terapia, sin usar clonación? 5° ¿Constituyen un problema único o problemas diferentes, desde el punto de vista ético, la clonación reproductiva y la terapéutica?

I.- Antecedentes: Conviene, desde el principio, separar las dos finalidades de la Clonación Humana: la reproductiva y la terapéutica. Algunos países la han prohibido sin discriminar entre ambas finalidades –por ejemplo: Argentina, Brasil, Colombia y Ecuador (y en los EE.UU. el estado de California)—. En 1996, Dinamarca, Eslovenia, España, Estonia, Finlandia, Francia, Grecia, Islandia, Italia, Latvia, Luxemburgo, Macedonia, Moldavia, Noruega, Portugal, Rumania, San Marino, Suecia y Turquía suscribieron una “Convención sobre Derechos Humanos y Biomedicina”, Convención que en su parte fundamental establece que “...cualquier intervención que intenta crear seres humanos genéticamente idénticos a otro ser humano, viviente o fallecido, no será permitida”;(1 ). Esta Convención no ha sido suscrita por Inglaterra – país que el 08/12/98 autorizó el cultivo de células hu...

OBJECTIVE: To examine the mental health of 12 to 18 year-old adolescent population. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A mental health household survey was carried out in a sample randomly selected from two areas of Las Delicias, District of Moche, Trujillo City, Peru: 32 subjects from Taquila (a rural area) and 43 from the North Zone (an area in process of urbanization). RESULTS: Problems related to substance abuse, mainly alcohol, were more predominant in Taquila while symptoms of distress and depression with lower family and social support were evident in the North Zone; the differences between the two subsamples were statistically significant. CONCLUSION: Stressors related to the described problems are probably immerse in the macrovariables associated to the urbanization process of that population.

The excellent work of Dr. Drane required by the importance of the subject, beyond a review of contributions to complement their efforts. Try modestly to add some line of thought. Wisely, James A Drane, warns in his work: "how difficult it is to say exactly the beginning of any historical period or even the cultural development of an academic discipline 'In optics such judgment."To talk about the beginning of bioethics inevitably leads to speculation"

OBJECTIVES: To describe the phenomenon of corruption in medical professional behaviour and to generate hypothesis to facilitate its scientific study. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Theoretical and descriptive analysis based on documented reports and observational descriptions of the phenomenon within the context of Peruvian reality, interpreted in the light of two paradigmes: Normality (Perales A. et al. 1989) and Personality System (Ortiz R 1994). RESULTS: The following hypothesis is proposed: "The higher medical population density in relation to the work market opportunities the higher risk of medical missconducts, being such a risk higher among physicians with characteristics of greater vulnerability, on account of biological, psychological or social variables". CONCLUSION: The problem of corruption in medical professional conduct must be studied by scientific research methodology in order to ...

The author reviews the impact of globalization on medical teaching. Regarding research teaching for medical undergraduates, he underlines that the important issue is to help the students to develop a research attitude and behavior for which he proposes the corresponding teaching strategies. He also points out the value of research activities in the organizational development of any School of Medicine for which at present remains with an actual survival role.

This is to communicate on the book by Richard Mollica. Md, sea. Text Global Mental Health: Trauma and Recovery. Guidelines for clinical care and field trauma victims worldwide (Textbook of global mental health. Trauma and recovery A companion guide for field and clinical care of traumatized people worldwide). Edited by Harvard Refugee Trauma Program, USA, 2011m electronic version can be obtained for $ 60.00 with: http: // mollica/ www.lulu.com/shop/richard-f-textbook-of-global-mind-healthtrauma- and companionguide- -recovery-for-a-field-and-clinical-care-people-worldwide oftraumatized- / ebook / product-16599951.html.

Objective: To describe and delimit the psychiatric vocation process and its associated factors. Design: Transversal, qualitative, descriptive and comparative study of cases. Methodology: Previous informed consent in depth audio-recorded interviews were carried out in two groups selected by criteria of heterogeneity, 45 psychiatrists currently in practice and 61 residents in psychiatry. Results and conclusions: Psychiatric vocation includes several dimensions. It considers the person as an integral being, showing strong interest on the psychological part of the patient and a need to reduce the suffering caused by mental illness. In the group of psychiatrists, the psychiatric vocation showed itself as more consolidated and genuine. In the group of residents, psychiatric vocation appeared as a weak and in some cases inexistent process. Several residents chose psychiatry as a career on accou...

Objective. To describe and delimit the surgical vocation process and associated factors. Design. Selected cases cross-sectional study qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed with descriptive purpose. Methods. Previous informed consent in depth audio-recorded interviews was carried out in 40 surgeons in current professional practice. Main outcome measures. Surgical vocation. Results. Males represented 95%; mean age was 65 years (41-86), mean medical experience 35.4 years (10-68), surgical experience 30.2 years (03-59). Training centers: 85% had university surgical training and 15% non-university training. Surgical vocation is a process that can begin in different periods of the life`s cycle. When it does before university studies (17.5% of the studied sample) it is mainly associated to strong family influence (parents or uncles surgeons). More frequently (80%) it emerges during medical ...

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Resulta difícil expresar el dolor que causa la partida terrenal de un íntimo amigo, y aún más, cuando se trata de uno de los pensadores peruanos más originales de las últimas décadas, el profesor sanmarquino, Dr. Pedro Ortiz Cabanillas, nacido el 31 de Julio de 1933 en la ciudad de Celendín, Cajamarca.

After reviewing key concepts on the issue, the author defines what institutional ethics is and outlines its functions within the organizational culture and dynamics of a health care institution. He points out that solidarity and justice constitute their fundamental basis intertwined in a good communication net. Finally, he sets forth that whenever institutional ethics is affected and stress in the working place occurs, the alteration of the three aforementioned variables leads to the most evident manifestations of this condition.

Considering health as a closely related concept to the one of development, either of the individual, people or nations, the author postulates that research is not an exclusive scientifie and concrete type of work but one that is carried out within a wide social context in which economic and political factors as well as power relationships, either at institutional or national level, models its type, real practice and results publication. In that sense, research, besides advancing our knowledge, must always fulfill an essential ethical social aim for the benefit of man and humankind; and, in third word countries, as it is the case of Peru, to consider poverty (which he divides into two types: with and without culture of poverty) in its design poverty as a valid co-causal variable in many health problems. In this perspective, besides reviewing the ethic criteria of clinical research, the au...

Considering health as a closely related concept to the one of development, either of the individual, people or nations, the author postulates that research is not an exclusive scientifie and concrete type of work but one that is carried out within a wide social context in which economic and political factors as well as power relationships, either at institutional or national level, models its type, real practice and results publication. In that sense, research, besides advancing our knowledge, must always fulfill an essential ethical social aim for the benefit of man and humankind; and, in third word countries, as it is the case of Peru, to consider poverty (which he divides into two types: with and without culture of poverty) in its design poverty as a valid co-causal variable in many health problems. In this perspective, besides reviewing the ethic criteria of clinical research, the au...

Resulta difícil expresar el dolor que causa la partida terrenal de un íntimo amigo, y aún más, cuando se trata de uno de los pensadores peruanos más originales de las últimas décadas, el profesor sanmarquino, Dr. Pedro Ortiz Cabanillas, nacido el 31 de Julio de 1933 en la ciudad de Celendín, Cajamarca.

After reviewing key concepts on the issue, the author defines what institutional ethics is and outlines its functions within the organizational culture and dynamics of a health care institution. He points out that solidarity and justice constitute their fundamental basis intertwined in a good communication net. Finally, he sets forth that whenever institutional ethics is affected and stress in the working place occurs, the alteration of the three aforementioned variables leads to the most evident manifestations of this condition.

Prevenir un suicidio es, actualmente, prioridad en Salud Pública ya que es la principal razón de muerte violenta en elmundo. Globalmente, cada año, cerca de un millón de personas mueren por suicidio, aunque hay un sub-registro significativo(1). La epidemiologia y tasa de suicidios es diferente en el mundo; así, se registra mayor número de suicidios en Europadel Este, comparado a América Latina. Igualmente, el género masculino registra mayor cantidad de suicidios consumados,aunque el sexo femenino tiene un número mayor de intentos suicidas. Vale mencionar que, frecuentemente, se observaintentos previos antes de consumarlo. Tal conducta debe alertarnos pues ofrece esperanza que una intervención apropiada y pronta puede reducir el número de víctimas.

La violencia constituye un problema global que afecta tanto a países desarrollados como en desarrollo. La literatura revisada(1-4)aunque evidencia los esfuerzos realizados por comprender la complejidad del fenómeno, al final, he debido aceptar que su esencia, maligna para nuestra sociedad, aún escapa a nuestro conocimiento.

Some of the problems of investigation on violence in our country, have to do with limitations on access to information, cooperation, funding and lack of knowledge of adequate procedures for collection and analysis of data. In order to make up for shortcomings in information, method, and bring us to the generation of a critical mass of researchers, two meetings on research on violence were organized. Individual and institutional researchers working in care and intervention in violence attended the first meeting. Consultation was done on access to financing sources, training requirements and suggestions for the organization of research into violence at the national level. The second meeting sought to strengthen the capacities of researchers on qualitative information and on Atlas Ti application for analysis of qualitative data.