Beyond Reductionism
Bioethics, Complexity and the Path to Transversal Ethics
The Ethical Labyrinth of the Modern World
Imagine a doctor in a remote region of Brazil, where resources are scarce. They must prioritize patients during a dengue outbreak, considering social impacts, economic disparities, and local cultural beliefs. Dilemmas like these don't fit into simple formulas — they demand a living bioethics, capable of interconnecting knowledge and contexts. This is where three revolutionary concepts emerge: transversality, Latin American bioethics, and the complexity paradigm. Together, they form a metabioethics — an ethics of ethics — that challenges fragmented views of reality and offers tools to navigate our interconnected world .
Pillars of Metabioethics: The Triad Redefining Ethics
Transversality
Weaving knowledge beyond disciplines, creating dialogical flows between medicine, law, ecology and sociology.
Latin American Bioethics
Focusing on equity and social determinants, viewing problems as parts of a dynamic whole historically situated.
Complexity Paradigm
Essential problems are multidimensional. Simplistic thinking mutilates them (Edgar Morin).
Transversality in Action
In education, bioethics isn't an isolated discipline but an axis crossing all health areas, requiring students to understand how agricultural policy affects community nutrition and consequently their right to health .
Latin American Perspective
While traditional currents focus on individual autonomy, Latin American bioethics places equity and social determinants at the center. A Zika virus epidemic isn't just a virological challenge but a phenomenon linked to basic sanitation, gender inequality, and healthcare access .
Morin's Complexity Principles
- The Holographic: The part is in the whole, and the whole is in the part (e.g., a cell contains information of the entire organism)
- Ecology of Actions: Every intervention generates unpredictable chain effects
The Experiment: RPG E.D.E.N. — Simulating Ethical Dilemmas in the Classroom
Context
How to teach bioethics integrating transversality, complexity and concrete totality? Researchers created RPG E.D.E.N. — an immersive tool where students assume roles in ethical-social conflict scenarios .
Methodology: Game Step-by-Step
- Base Scenario: Players are inserted in a context (e.g., riverside community threatened by hydroelectric construction)
- Characters with Worldviews: Each student assumes a role (doctor, community leader, engineer, indigenous person) with specific objectives
- Emergent Narrative: The game master introduces critical events (e.g., malaria outbreak, political pressure)
- Decision Making: Groups debate actions based on scientific facts, social impacts, economic constraints, and legal frameworks
- Systemic Feedback: Each decision alters multiple dimensions of the scenario
Students engaged in RPG E.D.E.N. simulation, developing systemic thinking and positional empathy.
Results: Developed Competencies
| Skill | Development % | Game Example |
|---|---|---|
| Systemic Thinking | 92% | Understanding health-environment interconnections |
| Positional Empathy | 87% | Comprehending the "other's" limitations (engineer vs. indigenous) |
| Decision Making Under Uncertainty | 78% | Choices with incomplete and conflicting information |
The RPG forces players to deal with the dialectic of the concrete (Kosik): problems aren't abstractions but lived realities. The narrative immersion creates "near-life experiences", allowing failure and reflection without real harm .
The Metabioethics Researcher's Toolkit
To operationalize this approach, scientists use resources beyond manuals:
| Tool | Function in Metabioethics | Practical Example |
|---|---|---|
| RPG E.D.E.N. | Simulation of multi-causal scenarios | Teaching land-health-rights conflicts |
| Universal Declaration of Human Rights | Transnational normative reference | Guiding decisions about vulnerability |
| Narratives | Giving voice to local contexts | Including indigenous traditions in care |
| Active Methodologies | Problem-based learning | Debates with real social actors |
| Sustainable Development Goals | Global interconnection framework | Linking health to environmental targets |
Why Metabioethics? The Future of Ethics in Science
Metabioethics isn't a new set of rules but a metamorphosis of perspective. It recognizes that:
Invisible Connections Matter
An agricultural model based on pesticides generates cancer in rural workers (health) and pollinator death (ecology) .
Uncertainty is Constitutive
Ethical decisions must incorporate the unpredictable (Morin's "ecology of action" principle) .
Education is Key
Training critical professionals requires tools like RPG that replace lectures with concrete totality experiences .
Comparing Bioethical Approaches
| Perspective | Main Focus | Limitation | Metabioethics Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Principialist Bioethics | Autonomy, beneficence | Individualism; contextual abstraction | Insertion in sociohistorical networks |
| Latin American Bioethics | Social determinants | Little practical operationalization | Pedagogical tools (e.g., RPG) |
| Complexity Paradigm | Interdependencies | High theoretical density | Models applicable to real dilemmas |
Conclusion: Ethics as Weaving of Relationships
Metabioethics invites us to abandon the illusion of control and embrace the web of life. As Morin proposes, "complex thinking isn't what avoids or suppresses the challenge, it's what helps reveal it". Tools like RPG E.D.E.N. are more than games: they're microcosms of concrete totality, where future professionals learn to navigate seas of uncertainty without losing sight of justice .
To Learn More:
- Kosik, K. Dialectic of the Concrete (1995) — Foundations of concrete totality
- Morin, E. The Seven Knowledges Needed for Education of the Future (2001) — Basis of complexity paradigm
- Setin, J.F.D. Gamification as Active Methodology for Bioethics (2021) — RPG E.D.E.N. details