Auto-hemoterapia, intervenção do estado e bioética / Autohemoteraphy, state intervention and bioethics

A auto-hemoterapia é uma prática de uso clínico crescente, mas com potencial risco à saúde dos indivíduos, uma vez que se trata de procedimento terapêutico sem comprovação científica. Até o momento não existem estudos clínicos que comprovem a eficácia e a segurança deste procedimento; apenas pesquisas experimentais com resultados questionáveis, tanto em seres humanos quanto em animais. Nos últimos anos, a área de Vigilância Sanitária (VS) do Ministério da Saúde ampliou suas ações preventivas e de controle de riscos tanto no âmbito privado como coletivo. As ações da VS têm, muitas vezes, como base o poder legal de polícia administrativa que a legislação lhe confere. Esse poder é entendido como a faculdade que dispõe a Administração Pública para condicionar e restringir o uso e gozo de bens, atividades e direitos individuais, em benefício da coletividade ou do próprio Estado. Recentemente, o Estado, por meio do poder de polícia da VS, interveio na prática da auto-hemoterapia no Brasil. O presente estudo analisa e defende a ação interventiva da VS na prática clínica da auto-hemoterapia no país, tendo como base de sustentação argumentativa os "Quatro Pês" desenvolvidos pela chamada "Bioética de Intervenção" - prevenção, proteção, precaução e prudência.

The increasingly frequent practice of autohemotherapy entails a potential risk to the health of individuals since it is scientifically unproven. There are practically no clinical studies showing the efficacy and safety of this procedure; only experimental research with questionable results from studies on human beings and animals. Over the last years, the sanitary surveillance area has expanded its preventive and risk control actions based upon a precautionary philosophy in the private as well as the public sphere. By observing the theoretical and practical reference points of the "four Ps" (prevention, protection, precaution and prudence), in accordance with the epistemology developed within Intervention Bioethics, sanitary surveillance actions are based upon legal administrative policing powers. These powers are understood to be the Public Administration's competence to set conditions on and restrict the use and benefit of goods, activities and individual rights, on behalf of the common well being of people or the State itself. The Brazilian State, through its sanitary surveillance policing powers at the three levels of government, has intervened in the practice of autohemotherapy. Considering the responsible State intervention in situations of collective interest, vulnerability and susceptibility, the present study proposed to analyze the practice of autohemotherapy in the light of sanitary surveillance actions and their relationship with the "four Ps" of Intervention Bioethics.

C cells in the thyroid of pinealectomized rats

PURPOSE: To study quantitatively C cells in the thyroids of non-isogenic rats to determine the possible effects of pinealectomy on the number of these cells, and consequently on the synthesis and secretion of calcitonin. METHODS: Twenty male rats of an outbred strain (200-300 g) were used in the present study. One group of 10 animals was pinealectomized 50 days prior to sacrifice. Thyroid tissue was stained for calcitonin (Dako Corporation) at a 1:1500 dilution. The number of C cells observed was expressed as number of cells/cm². Data were analyzed statistically by Mann-Whitney test. RESULTS: The number of C cells in pinealectomized and normal animals ranged from 489 to 2084 per cm² and 227 to 1584 per cm², respectively, a difference that was statistically significant (P <0.05). CONCLUSIONS: These results showed consistent differences in the number of C cells after pinealectomy when compared to controls. We believe that pinealectomy increases the number of C cells in the rat thyroid