Status quaestionis de la relación entre el virus del zika y los problemas congénitos, y su relación con el aborto en Brasil

Résumé

The Zika virus was discovered in 1947, and started causing epidemics in the Pacific islands in 2007. Despite the high level of infectiousness involved in these epidemics, the symptoms were very light, without any associated grave pathology. In 2014, during the epidemic in French Polynesia, the infection by the virus was associated with the Guillain Barré syndrome. However, it was towards the end of 2015, in an epidemic in Brazil, that the virus was correlated by researchers to congenital problems. This possible teratogenicity generated a worldwide scientific, juridical, moral and social debate, amplified by the celebration of the Olympic Games in Brazil. The present thesis offers an extensive exposition of the events that happened from the discovery of the virus up to the end of 2018. The first part, through a historical overview, presents the scientific facts related to the virus and the problems derived from infection, with special focus on the question of whether or not the virus causes the congenital problems. The second part analyzes the social and juridical consequences, highlighting the disconnection between the biological facts and the defense of the decriminalization of abortion in cases of infection by the Zika virus. The last part of the thesis considers, from different perspectives of moral theology, the strategies utilized by the abortionist lobby and their immorality. The contribution of the thesis consists in the systematization of the biological facts which provide the basis for a moral evaluation, and in effectuating a transdisciplinary dialogue among different areas of human knowledge.