Grupo de Investigação | Research Group:

Filosofia das Ciências da Vida | Philosophy of Life Sciences

This Research Area concerns the philosophical, epistemological and ethical questions connected with biomedicine, in particular the issues related with the so-called "molecularization of medical practice". We take Personalized Medicine as a particularly relevant arena of study and debate, that must be approached in a multidisciplinary perspective, involving philosophers, clinicians, social scientists, bioethicists, biologists, etc. Having in view a clarification and critical analysis of what Personalized Medicine is intended to be, and how it is going to reconfigure medicine at the macro, meso, and micro levels (roughly corresponding to the conceptual, organizational and doctor-patient interaction levels), we work on traditional topics of philosophy of medicine, such as the definition of health and disease; normal and pathological. We also focus on questions concerning medical diagnosis and prevention, with particular attention to the problems posed by the current trend to conflate risk and disease in relation to medical intervention (analysis of the concepts of genetic susceptibility, risk factor, modifiable risk, risk assessment and risk prevention). Through our research we contribute to the ongoing debate over the medicalization of everyday life, on the one hand, and over medical justice, on the other.