On March 20, 2024, the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations and ADF International organized the conference “Too High a Cost: End Surrogacy Now Preventing the Exploitation and Commodification of Women and Children,” during the “68th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women,” one of the UN’s major annual events at the United Nations Headquarters in NYC.
Giulia Bovassi, Chair Assistant Researcher, PhD Candidate at the Faculty of Bioethics of the Pontifical Atheneaum Regina Apostolorum (Rome), and Assistant Professor at Anhauac University, Mexico, was one of the speakers together with H.E. Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, Apostolic Nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, Olivia Maurel, Casablanca Declaration Spokesperson, born via surrogacy, Herveline Urcun, Observatoire de la Procréation Assistée, Bernard Garcia-Larrain, Ph.D., International Advocacy Officer, Juristes pour l’Enfance, and Giorgio Mazzoli, Director of UN Advocacy, ADF International (moderator).
Giulia Bovassi opened her talk with a fundamental question: ‘where is the mother?’ continuing with a reflection in which she brought, first of all, the problem of corporeity that, with surrogacy, becomes a biological resource available and indifferent to the person. We face a devaluation of woman that is reduced to a means of profit, a tool to achieve the best possible product as agreed upon and established. The child, from a subject of right becomes an object of right and desire, at the center of this global biobusiness. She also addressed other aspects, concluding with a reflection on the power of biotechnology and the nature of law, bringing arguments in support of the universal crime of surrogacy, the goal of the conference.
On the occasion of World Education Day the Recui- Network of Italian UNESCO Chairs organized its first General Assembly on the topics: peace education future. It was also an opportunity to present a Statement on Migration, the outcome of the work of the group dedicated to the phenomenon of migration. As UNESCO Chair, our contribution focused on Interreligious Dialogue and Human Ecology.
On December 1st, Prof. Fr. Joseph Tham, LC, Full Professor in Bioethics and Research Scholar of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights, will present during the ‘World Medical Association’s Regional Expert Meeting in Pacific on the WMA Declaration of Helsinki’ organized by the World Medical Association.
Abstract
Ethics of research in conflict settings
Research and trials would pose a significant challenge in conflict settings due to political instability, depravations, and lack of infrastructure. Humanitarian organizations naturally prioritize aid over research and may need more expertise, resources, and infrastructure to conduct valid research. Nonetheless, some advocates see value in them as they can measure the cost of the conflicts and the feasibility and effectiveness of interventions. The ethical challenges are informed consent, research design and review, and benefits to participants and vulnerable groups. p Declaration of Helsinki has not addressed research ethics in conflict settings. However, paragraphs on the necessity of research (26-28), informed consent (25-32), vulnerability (19-20) and benefits to participants (8, 34) are pertinent to this analysis and may benefit from further reflection. The presentation will end with a virtue ethics approach that can bridge the East-West gap in addressing this topic.
On December 5th, Prof. Fr. Joseph Tham, LC, Full Professor in Bioethics and Research Scholar of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights, will present during the three-day conference “Regulatory Governance of Emerging Health Technologies” in the “Reproductive Technologies” session. The conference is organized by Centre for Medical Ethics and Law, The University of Hong Kong.
Abstract
Personalist (Dignitarian) approach to the governance of reprogen medicine.
This paper will first analyze the different notions of personhood and dignity in contemporary debates in philosophy and bioethics. These questions touch on the foundation of identity and selfhood from the viewpoints of essence, nature and metaphysics, and in contrast with those of changing human experience and existence. These two positions, or “Sources of the self” according to Charles Taylor, have great significance on the human reproductive act. The essentialist position conceives dignity as derived from the natural sex act, where love and life are intrinsically bound while rejecting physicalism. The latter existentialist position does not preclude the making of life through technology, where sexuality and gender can take on various expressions. Most traditional religions espouse the essential view of self and generation in contrast with the secular tendency towards existential or ¨liquid¨ understanding of self and reproduction. Regarding the governance of reprogen technologies, the use of embryos is politically linked to the debate on abortion, as we see in the US Hyde amendment. In terms of governance, the unsettled questions are therefore: a) embryo status, human dignity and vulnerability at the beginning of life; b) safety of reporgen technologies at the individual level and potential impact on society and future generations; c) fairness in terms of racial, geographical and economical difference affecting the access of such technologies especially in view of the distribution problem of the COVID vaccine; d) transhumanism and its endpoint in view of perfectionism and ablism; and finally e) the place of religions and traditions in a globalized bioethics. Simply put, the dignitarian approach asks: “What does it mean to be human?” and “What does it mean to love?”
