[Bioethical analysis of the results of the questionnaire on bioethics and human dignity].

Abstract

In this second article of the Bioethics and Education Project we carry out the bioethical analysis of the results of the questionnaire answered by university students in the first years of Health Sciences. The great majority of the participants recognize the existence of equal dignity for all people, valuing their intrinsic character and, therefore, opposing discrimination of any kind. They also value positively the feeling of being cared for and well attended to in the case that they personally find themselves in situations of disability and dependency. However, a posteriori, we find that this ontological value of dignity varies to the point of ending up attributing a functional, subjective, and relative meaning to it in those cases in which a third party is the one who must make a decision about their life and health. When faced with a bioethical conflict, they link human dignity, and therefore the ethical value of an action, with the ability to choose freely and autonomously. In this sense, they would support decisions in favor of euthanasia for terminally ill patients, and abortion due to rape if that were the wish of those affected. In relation to the beginning of life, more than half of those surveyed recognize the existence of human life in both the embryonic and fetal phases. The conclusions provided by our research is that for ethical judgement, a majority of young people do not necessarily pay attention to the nature of what they choose. They suspend judgment on the choice so that the legality or illegality of the choice depends on the "consent" of those involved in it. They would reduce the dignity of the person to the freedom to choose.