OBJECTIVE: Compare the Code of Medical Ethics of the Federal Council of Medicine of Brazil with codes from 11 different countries, with the purpose of improving the comprehension of their structure and contribute to the achievement of their objectives. METHODS: Codes from five continents and 11 countries: Argentina, Chile, Canada, United States, Portugal, United Kingdom, South Africa, Egypt, China, India, and Australia were studied. Information was obtained from the Internet, by accessing sites of regulatory agencies and medical associations. Codes were described and compared according to information about the setting-up organization, spatial scope, compulsory extent, date of enforcement, organizational rules and auxiliary documents. RESULTS: The codes of ethics studied were: 59% created by the medical regulatory agency of the country, 92% of national scope, 67% compulsive for all physicians and 73% were last updated after the year 2000. A relation between the setting-up organization and the compulsory extent and spatial scope of the codes was observed. Need for systematic updating of the codes was noted. Updating is often carried out through auxiliary documents, however, there may be difficulties in making these contents known. The possibility of organizing the guidelines by topics, each followed by a small text was considered. CONCLUSION: This study presented suggestions for the Code of Medical Ethics of Brazil: conduct a review and an update of the code, organize the guidelines, including explanations and justifications, separate the ethical resolutions and finally improve its divulgation.
Code of ethics; Cross-cultural comparison; Medical ethics; Bioethics; Brazil
