Junges José Roque, Selli Lucilda
Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos (UNISINOS) / São Leopoldo, RS, Brazil.
J Int Bioethique. 2008 Mar-Jun;19(1-2):105-19, 198-9.
This article presents the discussion about environmental bioethics in Brazil. Brazil's naturally environmentalist vocation is due to the wealth of its biodiversity and to the possible contribution it can offer, in international forums, to defining the close relation between the protection of the environment and social justice--a challenge that Brazil has to face. A first important aspect is the discussion on natural and cultural biodiversity. The loss of natural biodiversity corresponds to a loss of cultural diversity in the way human beings relate to nature. Brazilian culture presents rich and diversified traditional uses of natural resources, in harmony with the corresponding natural ecosystem. This cultural biodiversity is being lost due to the introduction of technology-based, extensive agriculture by agro-business, which does not construct agricultural models in interaction with the local ecosystem, imposing homogeneous production modes for completely different regions. This issue makes us rethink the meaning of sustainable development. Due to its vagueness, this concept has been identified with material and measurable progress based on economic criteria. The impossibility of determining the price of common, permanent goods from nature, as well as the adoption of the Index of Human Development, have represented an effort toward the correction of this economicist reductionism and an attempt to understand sustainability in more comprehensive ecological terms. This concern points to a social movement known as Environmental Justice, which denounces the environmental burden that invariably affects marginalized groups within society, representing a risk to their life and health; that represents an environmental injustice. Understanding how Environmental Justice defines those hazards compels us to adopt an ecosystemic vision of health, in which the life conditions of the environment are part of the understanding of health itself. This integral vision is part of the movement's proposals to promote health and to fight for healthful urban environments.
本文介绍了巴西关于环境生物伦理学的讨论。巴西天生的环保使命源于其丰富的生物多样性，以及它在国际论坛上为界定环境保护与社会正义之间的密切关系所能做出的贡献——这是巴西必须面对的一项挑战。第一个重要方面是关于自然和文化生物多样性的讨论。自然生物多样性的丧失意味着人类与自然关系中文化多样性的丧失。巴西文化呈现出对自然资源丰富多样的传统利用方式，与相应的自然生态系统和谐共生。这种文化生物多样性正因农业综合企业引入的基于技术的粗放型农业而丧失，这种农业没有构建与当地生态系统相互作用的农业模式，而是将同质化的生产模式强加于完全不同的地区。这个问题促使我们重新思考可持续发展的意义。由于其模糊性，这一概念已与基于经济标准的物质和可衡量的进步划上等号。无法确定自然中常见的永久性物品的价格，以及人类发展指数的采用，代表了纠正这种经济主义还原论的努力，并试图从更全面的生态角度理解可持续性。这种关切指向一场被称为环境正义的社会运动，该运动谴责环境负担总是影响社会中的边缘化群体，对他们的生命和健康构成风险；这代表了一种环境不公正。理解环境正义如何界定这些危害迫使我们采用一种生态系统健康观，在这种观念中，环境的生活条件是健康本身理解的一部分。这种整体观是该运动促进健康和争取健康城市环境提议的一部分。
