CAPITALISM AND THE ONTOLOGY OF BIOETHICS:THE FAMILYPHYSICIANWORKPROCESS IN ITALY

Abstract

This paper examines the weaknesses that permeate the interrelationships established in the work process Italian family physicians use to get to know potential ethical conflicts. This field study used a qualitative approach, was exploratory-descriptive in nature, and was conducted in 2007 in the province of Rome, region of Lazio, Italy, among Italian family physicians hired under the National Health Service. Analyzed in the light of everyday bioethics, the results show ethical conflicts generated directly by the health care organization model used by the National Health Service, by the pharmaceutical industry's market, and indirectly by the society, with the backdrop of neoliberal capitalism.

family physicians; bioethics; capitalism