EPIGENETICS AND ENVIRONMENTAL BIOETHICS

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Émilien Vilas Boas Reis
Bruno Torquato de Oliveira Naves

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Despite being a new area of scientific knowledge, Bioethics has developed two main references that alternate temporally: a more global Ethics, as the one defended by Potter, and the Georgetown model, which was limited to the issue of Medical Ethics, revitalizing the practical Ethics. In the last decades, a widening of Bioethics is being followed up and it came to be recognized as a new transdisciplinary discipline that is inseparable from concerns about the environment. The advancements of Genetics and the creation of Epigenetics opened new paths to Bioethics. The interaction between the environment and the structure of DNA became known, but modifications that can be passed on to the offspring without affecting the structure of the DNA were also discovered. This paper is dedicated to the analysis of the changes that can hereditarily be passed on to future generations through the interference of the environment, from Rachel Yehuda et al™s recent article: Holocaust exposure induced intergenerational effects on FKBP5 methylation. Yehuda™s study allowed for a glimpse over what unfolds for the future of Bioethics, its new challenges and issues and it also evidenced the fact that health and environment are in constant and inseparable connection.

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Émilien Vilas Boas Reis, Escola Superior Dom Helder Câmara

Pós-doutor em Filosofia pela Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto (Portugal); Doutor e Mestre em Filosofia pela PUC-RS; Graduado em Filosofia pela UFMG. Professor de Filosofia e Filosofia do Direito da Graduação e do Mestrado em Direito Ambiental e Desenvolvimento Sustentável da Escola Superior Dom Helder Câmara (Belo Horizonte - MG).

Bruno Torquato de Oliveira Naves, Escola Superior Dom Helder Câmara.

Doutor e Mestre em Direito pela PUC Minas; Professor do Mestrado em Direito Ambiental e Desenvolvimento Sustentável da Escola Superior Dom Helder Câmara; Coordenador do Curso de Especialização em Direito Urbanístico e Ambiental da PUC Minas Virtual; Professor nos Cursos de Graduação e Especialização em Direito da PUC Minas e da Escola Superior Dom Helder Câmara; Pesquisador do CEBID – Centro de Estudos em Biodireito (cebid.com.br).