Attending homosexual teenagers: bioethical challenges

Abstract

It is relevant to begin by defining the chronological limits of adolescence which are, according to the World Health Organization [WHO] (2006), between 10 and 19 years old (teenagers).

Thus, Taquette (2010), stresses that the ethical principles when attending teenagers in the health services refer especially to privacy, characterized by not allowing others in the appointment place; confidentiality, defined as an agreement between the healthcare professional and the client and that the information discussed during and after the appointment cannot be told to the teenagers' tutors without his or her permission; secrecy, regulated by article 103 of the Medical Ethics Code (Resolução CFM n. 1931, 2009); and autonomy, in Chapter II, art. 17, from Child and Adolescent Statute (ECA) (Lei n. 8069, 1990).

Associated to these factors, the Bioethics optics should be introduced to these appointments, following Montero and González (2010). Classically, four basic principles are described: beneficence, nonmaleficence, autonomy and justice.

According to Almeida, Lins, and Rocha (2015), the autonomy is one of the bioethics pillars and, in the context of health care, concerns about the decision-making power of the patient about issues related to his own health; beneficence means protecting and defending the rights of others, seeking to prevent others from being harmed, to eliminate conditions that will harm others, to help unfit people, to aid people at risk situations; In other words, it is about applying the resources of medicine to cure, relieve suffering, improve well-being. Nonmaleficence requires that harmful actions or acts that damage the patient are not intentionally performed.

Thereby, according to Taquette and Rodrigues (2015), efforts have been made in the health area in order to know the homoerotic path of teenagers and to face the discrimination forms that place them in a condition of greater vulnerability to health.