By Ana Maria Ganev, Phd Candidate of the School of Bioethics
The first part of the 19th Summer Bioethics Course took place on July 2-3 and will continue with its second part on July 9-10, 2021 at 15:30-18:30. This international and interdisciplinary summer course on human consciousness started with a welcome speech by Alberto García Gómez, the Pro-Dean and Professor at the School of Bioethics of Athenaeum Pontificium Regina Apostolorum in Rome. This intense, thought-provoking summer course on bioethics and consciousness began by approaching this topic from the clinical and psychological point of view. The first speaker was Dr. Amir Raz, from Chapman University, who held a presentation about “The Suggestible Brain”, explaining his recent studies on how behavior could be generated through suggestion. He introduced some interesting themes to be further investigated and discussed, such as neuroenchantment, suggestibility and placebo, and suggestibility considered as a gift and not as a weakness. He stressed several times during his presentation that what happens between our ears is more important than what happens outside our skull. The second speaker was Matilde Leonardi, a neurologist specialized in bioethics, who dedicated her presentation to defining altered states of consciousness are from a clinical perspective. The definition should allow for comparison of severity across different types of disability, in order to distinguish the main neuropathological states of consciousness. How do we know whether someone other than ourselves is conscious? While this question seems philosophical, it requires nevertheless a scientific evidence-based approach in order to be able to give answers, take certain actions and understand its multiple implications. The UCLA speaker, Martin Monti, has further developed the theme of ethical decision-making in patients who survive severe brain injury and enter the limbo of Disorders of Consciousness (DoC) such as the Vegetative State (VS) and the Minimally Conscious State (MCS). The first day ended with an engaging performance of the piano accompanist Luisa Zecchinelli with the soprano Annunziata Lia Lantieri, who introduced the entertaining subject of psychology and consciousness in music. The two artists focused their attention on the valuable role of the voice as consciousness of the internal universe of each person.
On the second day of the summer course, the psychiatrist and psychotherapist Benedetto Farina highlighted psychopathological alterations of consciousness, concentrating mainly on the DIDs (Dissociative Identity Disorders). Dissociative symptoms or disorders are widespread nowadays and often severe, almost always generated by traumatic experiences that can lead to the separation of the individual’s personality and determine multiple identities. The functioning of dissociative processes and alterations in self-consciousness are being investigated not only from psychological and psychopathological point of view, but also from a neuroscientific one. The following speaker Claudio Imperatori, from the European University of Rome, introduced the fascinating topic of the Default Mode Network, as well as altered consciousness in psychiatric patients. The Default Mode Network (DMN) is a network of brain structures that are activated or light up with activity when we have no mental task to perform, like when daydreaming, ruminating or reflecting on our-self. This default network is most active when the brain is engaged in “metacognitive” processes. However, there are several other networks, such as the Central Executive Network and the Salience Network, responsible for other tasks and activated during processes like memory, decision-making, problem-solving and detection of salient stimuli. The third speaker, Prof. Michela Balconi from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, turned the spotlight on the sense of agency. The aim of the presentation was to point out the role of consciousness during an action and the sense of agency, in other words, the mechanism of the subjective awareness of the initiation, execution and control of an action (authorship and ownership).
Finally, the second day ended with a comprehensive summary and overview of the neurobioethics of consciousness by Dr. Maria Paola Brugnoli and an introductory study on the various meanings of the term “consciousness” by Prof. Alberto Carrara. The second part of this interdisciplinary summer course will be dedicated to the study of consciousness from a philosophical and theological perspective and from a legal and social perspective.
En colaboración con la Universidad Anahuac México, hemos elaborado algunos materiales para la didáctica y entretenimiento en torno a temas de bioética. En marzo 2020 les presentamos el libro-cuento “Bioética para niños y niñas” (Ed. Porrúa).
Ahora presentamos y recomendamos esta aplicación (App) para niños que se llama Bioétix a través de la cual ponemos al alcance de los niños un juego didáctico con el fin de desarrollar sus habilidades humanas y éticas.
La aplicación se puede descargar aquí: http://onelink.to/as8mhg (sólo por móvil). Adjunto encontrarás una breve ficha técnica que describe la utilidad y objetivos de la aplicación.
The Center for Advanced Studies in Medical Education and Training (CEDUMED) and the Center for the Study of Legal, Economic and Social Sciences (CEJES), with support from the Center for the Study of Public Law, all from the Agostinho Neto University Angola, and the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights offer the Conference “Bioethics in Times of Covid-19” taking place on April 7, 2021 , commemorating World Health Day, under the motto “Covid-19: doing well, doing good!” .
The World Health Organization declares 2021 as the “International Year of Health Workers and Caregivers” and devotes World Health Day 2021 to the motto “Building a fairer and healthier world” ( https://www.who.int/campaigns / world-health-day / 2021 ).
The Conference will have as its motto “Covid-19: to do good, to do good!” meaning that the fight against the pandemic and the assistance to people faces the double and inseparable challenge of acting in accordance with the best evidence and good practices (health services of scientific, technical and organizational quality) and, at the same time, be guided by principles, values and actions in accordance with ethics and morals.
The Conference will include communications by invited national and international scientists, namely from partner institutions of the Organizing Centers, transmitted by online video conference and YouTube, on April 7, 2021.
After the event, the “Conference Proceedings” will be published, a scientific-technical book with an ISBN collecting the full text of the various interventions and communications that will be published digitally and, if possible, in a limited number of printed copies.
The Conference will have an Honor Committee, Organizing Committee, Scientific Committee and Secretariat.
Honor Commission
Professor Maria do Rosário Bragança (Minister of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation of the Republic of Angola)
Professor Dr. Sílvia Lutucuta (Minister of Health of the Republic of Angola)
Professor Maria Cecília Lorea Leite (Associate Professor at the Federal University of Pelotas, Brazil)
Professor Doctor Filomeno Fortes (Director of the Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine of Lisbon)
Professor Doctor Volnei Bottle (University of Brasilia, Brazil)
Organizing committee
Full Professor Pedro Magalhães (Magnificent Rector of the Agostinho Neto University)
Full Professor Mário Fresta (Director of the Medical Education Center – CEDUMED-UAN)
Full Professor José Octávio Serra Van-Dúnem (Director of the Center for Economic and Social Legal Studies – CEJES-UAN)
Dr. Arlindo Isabel (Director of the UAN’s Office of Scientific Information and Documentation)
Professor Carlos Keta (CEJES-UAN)
Scientific Committee (appreciates abstracts and communications)
Full Professor Raúl Araújo (Director of the Center for the Study of Public Law and Legal and Political Sciences – CEDP-UAN)
Professor Gabriel Cornell (University of Brasilia, Brazil).
Doctor Carlos Tuti (CEDUMED / UAN)
CONFERENCE PROGRAM
2pm – Opening Session (Angola time)
2:30 pm – Law versus bioethics in times of pandemic. What challenges?
3pm – Bioethics in clinical research in Covid: disruptions, adaptations and lessons.
3:30 pm – Covid-19 and vaccines – universal versus market access.
4pm – Global Bioethics and Human Rights for Sustainable Development.
ALBERTO GARCÍA GÓMEZ – PhD in Law from the Complutense University; Full Professor at the School of Bioethics of the Ateneo Pontificio Regina Apostolorum in Rome; Researcher at the Human Rights Institute of the Complutense University and Director of the Chair of Bioethics and Human Rights in Rome .
4:30 pm – Experience of the National Bioethics Council for Public Health of Mozambique after COVID-19 .
JOÃO FERNANDO LIMA SCHWALBACH – Doctor of Medicine; President of the Mozambican Public Health Association; President of the National Commission on Bioethics for Public Health of Mozambique and Coordinator of the LusoAfro-Bioethics Project. Strengthening of Bioethics Commissions in the Lusophone Region of Africa.
5pm – Integral Ecology and Health of Migrant Workers.
Father ANTÔNIO LEMOS – Master in Moral Theology by the Ateneo Pontificio Regina Apostolorum of Rome; Priest of the Legionaries of Christ and Interpreter.
5:30 pm – National Bioethics Advisory Council in Covid-19 time.
6:00 pm – Bioethical Challenges in the Technological Society.
6:30 pm – Bioethical Challenges, Problems and Dilemmas in Covid-19 Times.
7pm – End of the event.
Moderators:
DATA OF ACCESS TO THE EVENT:
Link to the event: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84217615588?pwd=Zm9zc1AwakZKREYxckVNdlBiM1Eydz09
Our Chair Fellow Prof. Joseph Tham published the article “Crises of Faith and Reason in the Debates on Gender: Comments on ‘Male and Female he created them’ by the Congregation for Catholic Education” in the academic journal Educatio Catholica volume VI issue 4. The document can be read at
Educatio Catholica is the institutional journal of the Congregation for Catholic Education which since January 2015 has taken the place of Seminarium, published from 1948 to 2014 and still available in the back issues regarding the main themes of the Cogregation.
The journal publishes – on a quarterly basis and in a renewed graphic format – the themes closely connected to the competences of the Congregation, therefore dealing in depth and in a competent manner with both: education in a general sense and in in a closer matter school, professional and university education.
