Publicado em 03 de agosto de 2022.

Writing a preface to a book is an attitude and a task that causes me a joy without size! It is about knowing a work in its first version, full of dreams, before being shown to the world.

I am usually invited to write presentations and prefaces to works done by people close to me, my line of research, my studies, my academic universe. I am always very happy with the distinction they give me, I am honored to be able to do so and be able to participate in this unique moment of production, of socialization of a text, of a work, which is always the realization of a dream, of an affective intentionality - which is in fact the substrate of every writer - as well as of every written work. To write is to give yourself to the world, to reveal oneself to people, to society, is to leave a trail of clues about what you love, about what you think and believe, about life, history, the world, art, finally, love, suffering, culture, among so many other dimensions. I always consider it courageous who writes and who delivers what he writes to society as a whole, in a work always revealing of its author, or of its authors or protagonists, of its steps and missteps, of its intentions and purposes.

I received the invitation of Pedro Pompeo to preface his book, highlighted here, on the responsibility of the doctor. I then briefly report on my reading experience. After the presentation of the book, I began reading chapter 2, in which it was addressed historical aspects of medicine, dating back to biblical times, it was a very rich reading, which brought a perspective view of how we got here.

In chapter 3, the author entered the legal sphere of medical error. Here it was necessary legal knowledge. Here I unlike the work of Doctor Jhonas Geraldo Peixoto Flauzino, who wrote with mastery and objectivity. His writing is a reflection of his undergraduate and master’s degree in law, which, together with the medical knowledge he obtained in his second undergraduate degree, that of medicine, enabled a fluid and palatable reading.

Already in chapter 4, we have the so promised alliance between medical and legal content, that as the authors said “law and medicine are branches of a common trunk”, as they really are. But if this is true, legitimate is that ethics is the mother, the root, the core. Hence, the relationship between Medicine, Law and Bioethics.

Although they seem synonymous, Medical Ethics, Bioethics and Medical Law are distinct fields of study. However, in medical practice, they all have application and functionality. Knowing the principles of Bioethics, as well as the foundations of Medical Ethics are of great value to guide conducts and elaborate defenses in the field of Medical Law.

It is an academic book, because it is a text full of reflections, of concepts extracted from articles and texts consecrated in medical and legal literature. In this work, we see the

neutrality of the authors, who sought to bring facts and concepts enshrined in the literature. So

I recommend to all parents, educators, managers, teachers, students, researchers, in short, to all people who know how to nurture hopes of love. The human condition is always surprising and innovative. Each person marks the history of our historical and cultural march, and opens endless horizons of possibilities and original emancipations. This book is an invitation.

Mariana Peixoto Pereira,

Campinas, autumn 2021