key: cord-0875167-lwthrfml
authors: Arguedas‐Ramírez, Gabriela
title: Bioethics in the Times of Contagious Populism
date: 2021-03-03
journal: Dev World Bioeth
DOI: 10.1111/dewb.12304
sha: 9ce6d5c185952eaeecd04f8bf27b84abb13220cc
doc_id: 875167
cord_uid: lwthrfml

nan

As I write this short piece, several social protests are happening in Costa Rica, where I live. The messages that protestors are sending out are very confusing, even contradictory. However, in the midst of this chaos, it's still possible to identify certain emotions and narratives. There is plenty of frustration, fear, anger. The economic crisis exacerbated by COVID-19 has caused an increase in unemployment, which had already been growing rapidly during the last few years.

Using conspiracy theories and false information about the SARS-Cov-2 virus, anti-democratic groups are taking advantage of the situation in an effort to destabilize the political and constitutional order.

Much of this looks like a generic description that could easily be valid for a large number of countries in many regions of the world. This is not a coincidence. Humanity is going through a variety of simultaneous crises that can be defined as a systemic crisis. Climate change has been worsening year after year, while the community of nations still can't gather the necessary political will to do what needs to be done to tackle this emergency. On the other hand, many political crises have erupted around the world, fueled by years of growing inequality and continuing injustice. And, during the last decade, we have been dealing with a concatenation of economic crises that many experts 1 interpret as an unequivocal sign of the collapse of the global economic system. It is precisely these entwined crises that enabled the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic: intense globalization, accelerated during the last 3 decades; extreme environmental degradation; and a crisis of legiti- One of the most contributing factors that has led us to the situation we are experiencing today is growing inequality. Inequality has gradually tightened the threads of the social fabric, and is causing them to break. The consequences are dire. The turn toward authoritarian populism is one of those consequences. We have seen it in the USA, in Brazil, in El Salvador. In Costa Rica we came very close to that outcome two years ago during the 2018 Presidential election. However, even though the populist alternatives did not win the popular vote, they have been causing political instability, and an authoritarian populist candidate is very likely to win the next election.

When the social contract seems to work fine just for a few people turn. If we pay attention to history, then we will understand that once an authoritarian populist leader has come to power through democratic elections, scientific, social, educational, and health institutions will be exposed to the use and abuse of governmental power.

Health Policy discuss the negative impact of the 'fake news' and 'alternative facts' phenomena, which appears to go hand in hand with the expansion of populism during the last few years. They argue that "in authorities have taken place. In a political move that plainly denies the separation between the State and religious beliefs, both the political leader and the religious leader seek a mutual gain to concentrate power. We have seen this happen recently in Hungary, Poland, Turkey, Brazil, Nicaragua, and the USA. As a consequence, the attacks on freedom of thought and expression start to undermine science and public health institutions. In some countries, even academia has been under persecution. In Hungary, for example, the Gender Studies program of the Central European University was expelled 7 from the country.

Similar situations 8 have also occurred in Brazil. Furthermore, recent research 9 shows that the social phenomenon known as Christian Nationalism is an integral part of the populist turn in the USA and in many other countries.

This alliance between populist leaders and religious authorities frequently operates through the weaponizing of morally sensitive issues linked to sexual and reproductive human rights such abortion, emergency contraception and sexual diversity. In Nicaragua and El Salvador, for example, the complete criminalization of abortion was the result of negotiations between populist leaders and religious authorities. 10 And now, this strategy is being used by the populist leaders of Brazil and the USA at a regional and international level at the Organisation of American States (OAS). 11 Based on this state of affairs I consider that we, bioethicists around the world, should ask ourselves some difficult and urgent questions regarding the very conditions of possibility for our field to keep existing as we know it. For instance, we need to consider whether or not global bioethics can fulfill its fundamental objectives if the populist shift turns into a tide? Furthermore, how can bioethics be relevant in public policy, healthcare settings and research in countries where populism is getting stronger?

Finally, and more importantly, if authoritarian populism continues its contagious growth, how can bioethics honor the historical legacy that constitutes the very foundations of this field? Gabriela Arguedas-Ramírez

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