Chapitre 7. Comment engager le citoyen dans les discussions bioéthiques et environnementales ?

From the problem of the increase in the price of diesel by a few cents (cf. the movement of the Yellow Vests), we have moved on to the political question of the economic impact of the ecological transition on the middle and especially vulnerable social classes. In this same national debate in 2018, among the 32 questions asked was that of secularism. The environmental question is resolutely bioethical coupled with other concepts including freedom of conscience. It recalls the Rawlsian question of “how to live together?”. It is an integral part of the ongoing political programs for the 2022 presidential elections. How to debate and engage the citizen in bioethical and sustainable development discussions?

[Competency-based pedagogical approach: illustration applied to the care relationship]. / Approche pédagogique par compétences : illustration appliquée à la relation de soins.

The reform of health studies and the inclusion in the Bachelor-Master-Doctorate curriculum implies a new way of teaching, with an inverted pedagogical relationship between student and teacher. The competency-based approach contributes to the development of the student's professional and interpersonal skills, in the same way as the support provided by the nurse in the care relationship, particularly in therapeutic education, in order to promote patient autonomy.

[Free will and patient consent during care]. / Libre-arbitre et consentement du patient lors des soins.

Raising the question of a person's free will means questioning their freedom and capacity to make choices. Therefore, being free, means being able to judge between the possibilities which are offered to us, and deciding of our own accord what is acceptable to us. The concept of free will is associated with the notion of consent, in particular during care.

[The ethical reflection approach, a source of wellbeing at work]. / La démarche de réflexion éthique, source de mieux-être dans le travail.

Clinical nursing practice, beyond its application to care procedures, can be expressed in terms of ethical added value in the support of patients. In Reims university hospital, where a clinical ethics and care think-tank was created in June 2010, the ethical reflection approach is encouraged in order to reemphasise the global meaning of care as a source of wellbeing at work.

[Liberalism, communautarism and euthanasia]. / Libéralisme, communautarisme et euthanasie.

The controversy surrounding the right to die illustrates the impossibility for political liberalism to put aside the moral and religious convictions of individuals. This is contrary to the issue of abortion, where the political values of tolerance and the equal rights of women as citizens constitute a sufficient base to conclude that women are free to chose for themselves if they wish to have an abortion or not. The claims in favor of the right to die in dignity concern a category of the population: patients at the end of life. Does the majority always win over the minority? Confronted with social emergency, political solutions put in place in favor or against the recognition of the right to die have fostered numerous political spectra, such as liberal or communitary theories.