Bioethical Context of the Medical Care Process in Yanomami Indigenous Communities of the Amazonas State in Venezuela

Abstract

The Yanomami live in large communal houses where all the people live together under a common roof of palm leaves called shabono. Among their moral and cultural values, sharing and generosity are key, and contrary to this, the most reprehensible and contemptible behaviour for them is to be petty, greedy, stingy, or selfish.

Aim: To describe the bioethical context of the medical care process in the Yanomami Indigenous communities of the Amazonas State in Venezuela from the principialist perspective of bioethics. Methods: Ethnographic qualitative research was carried out based on the medical care experience of the authors, who for 2 years lived in Yanomami communities, offering health services. For the bioethical analysis, an evaluation of the medical care process and of some social aspects was carried out from the principlist perspective of biotics. Development: The personal autonomy of the Yanomami with respect to the health service is expressed at various times during medical care. They are demanding in requesting information on the biomedical procedures offered to them. They are able to express their advance will. As part of the principle of justice, the Venezuelan State has developed, although insufficient, a set of strategies to increase the coverage of health services. Conclusions: From a bioethical point of view, the Yanomami are subjects of legitimate rights capable of expressing their autonomy as individual and unique persons within a society in which the collective and community prevail.