With the advance of biomedicine, certain individuals and groups are vulnerable because of their incapacities to defend themselves.  Many world religions include the protection of the weak, underprivileged and the poor as part of their mission.

The conference provided a broad platform for various religious approaches to the issue of human rights and to bioethics in general.  I was also impressed with the scholarship of my colleagues in Hong Kong.” noted Dr. Henk ten Have, Director of the Center for Healthcare Ethics at Duquesne University.

Bioethical thought leaders from six major religions and twelve countries gathered in Mexico City for the Fourth International Bioethics, Multiculturalism, and Religion Workshop and Conference to discuss the role of social responsibility in health from their diverse traditions. 

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center was the host of the Fifth International Bioethics, Multiculturalism, and Religion Workshop and Conference. During three days Bioethical thought leaders from six major religions and ten countries gathered to analyze and discuss the “Bioethical Challenges in Neurogenomics from an Interreligious and Multicultural Perspective.”

The UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights will hold its 6th international Bioethics, multiculturalism and religion workshop to discuss issues of informed consent and clinical research February 21-23. As part of the i-Consent consortium (a project funded by the European Union – Horizon 2020), the ethical reflections of the workshop will focus on the multicultural and interdisciplinary dimension of the ethical requirements of informed consent applied to transnational / clinical research and vaccination.

In this three-day event, the UNESCO Chair workshop will analyze and discuss “Protecting the Future Generations and the Ethics of Human Reproduction” from an Interreligious and Multicultural Perspective. Experts from religious (Buddhist, Christian, Confucian, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish) and secular traditions will discuss article 16 of the UNESCO Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights: “The impact of life sciences of future generation, including on their genetic constitution should be give due regard.”

Experts from religious (Buddhist, Christian, Confucian, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish) and secular traditions will analyze and discuss “Religious Perspectives on Bioethics: Protecting the environment, the biosphere and biodiversity” from an Interreligious and Multicultural Perspective during a three-day UNESCO Chair workshop.

Speakers from 6 traditions—Christian orthodoxy, Judaism, Islam, Confucianism, Hinduism, and Buddhism—will offer a commentary to chapters 5-8 of the Encyclical Fratelli Tutti.  These chapters make a more practical proposal as to how political, societal, and religious groups can encourage a greater sense of fraternity and solidarity in our globalized reality.

With the rapid advancement of medical science and technology, the discipline of medicine has been radically changed in recent years and the role of physicians have also been transformed accordingly. And so, it is important to discuss and to understand the redefinition of the medical field through the lens of different cultural and religious traditions.