This article summarizes the results of a document survey on the teaching of Bioethics in graduate studies courses in the health field, specifically related to one of its objectives: to characterize the professors' academic background. The academic background was mapped for Bioethics professors from 163 courses accredited by CAPES, the Brazilian Federal agency for graduate studies. By identifying the faculty members through the course programs, a survey of their resumés was performed in the CNPq Lattes database. Due to lack of records and exclusion of names that appeared more than once in other courses, it was only possible to analyze the resumés of 96 professors. Of these, 58 (60.4%) were male, 45 (46.9%) were from the medical field, 51 (53.1%) from 12 other academic fields, 36 (37.5%) had two or more graduate degrees, and 2 (2.08%) had graduated in philosophy and 1 (1.04%) in linguistics. In 83 (86.47%) of the resumés, there was no record of specific training in courses on Philosophy, Ethics, or Bioethics. Sixteen 16 (n=16.7%) were formal members of Institutional Review Boards or Ethics Committees, but only 5 (5.2%) had already participated actively. The study showed that the greatest challenge is to overcome the lack of qualified professionals for teaching Bioethics in Brazil's graduate courses.
Teaching; Bioethics; Faculty
