Principlism revisited: uses and shortcomings in the approach of Brazilian bioethical problems

Abstract

This article present the most often criticisms in Brazilian bioethics teories, face on the importation of foreign theories, especially against the “Principialist Paradigm”. Try to show the Principlism not as a paradigm of bioethics, but as an educational tool; and analyze advantages e shortcomings of its application. Discuse the Principlism is neither a paradigm, nor a general moral theory; it simply provides a framework for identification and discussion of moral problems. Principlism’s difficulties to deal with public health problems come from the complexity for the specification of the principle of Justice and from the treatment, more political than ethical, that those problems demand. Comments that the principlist tool employs concepts whose apprehension is relatively simple. It is appropriate for the discussion of real cases, especially if leaded by non-specialists.