[Challenges for a new health pact: biotechnology and risk]

Cien Saude Colet. 2011:16 Suppl 1:837-46. doi: 10.1590/s1413-81232011000700015.
[Article in Portuguese]

Abstract

This article discusses the use and the incorporation of biotechnological practices in Public Health, in a risk society context. Considering the contemporary social theoreticians, the implications of the biotechnological uses have been analyzed. The article was divided into three different parts. In the first part, the examples of biological manipulation are presented, developed in the health scope and the consequences of using the techniques on the ecological dynamic of the populations involved on it. Then it presents what these biological modified hybrid species are, and how their incorporation on the common practices of Public Health occurs. The second part presents the theoretical references, which are used to the analysis that places the contemporary society in the reflexive stage of modernization and has its form in the risk society. The third and last part of the article argues the biotechnological uses on health, specifically on Public Health, tackling the risk aspects of its application, showing that another sanitary pact is needed.

Publication types

  • English Abstract

MeSH terms

  • Biotechnology*
  • Humans
  • Public Health / methods*
  • Risk