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?”
The UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights in collaboration with The University of Anáhuac (Faculty of Bioethics), and the Ateneo Pontificio Regina Apostolorum is launching the NEW Master in Global Bioethics online.
Objectives & Outcomes:
Training future university professors, health care professionals, biomedical researchers, social and political agents with high academic knowledge and skills in bioethics.
Providing an integral formation in the field of global bioethics, allowing participants to develop their professional activity, both in the private and public sphere, with social responsibility and grounded in person-center approach.
Addressed to people interested in:
Promoting human dignity, human rights and duties in the field of life sciences and medicine as well as in social, legal and political environments
Studying and researching about the biomedical, philosophical, social and legal aspects of the contemporary important and cutting-edge bioethical dilemmas
Developing capacity for interdisciplinary, international and cross-cultural dialogue to explore new solutions for the preservation of health and the improvement of individual well-being and social welfare.
Program:
Concept of Human Being in Bioethics and Global Bioethics
Trends and Currents of Thought in Bioethics
Research Techniques and Databases
Ethical Fundamentals of Bioethics
Clinical and Bioethical Aspects at the Beginning of Life
Bioethics, Sexuality and Human Reproduction
Bioethical and Clinical Aspects at the End of Life
Bioethics and Medical Act
Bioethics and Health Management/Health Care Policies
Bioethics and Biolaw
Global Bioethics
Global Bioethics and International Human Rights: The Human Right to Health
Emerging Technologies and Global Bioethics: Neuro-Nano-Info Technologies
*Validity of Studies Recognition issued by the Secretary of Public Education by means of Presidential Decree, published in the Official Journal of the Federation in November 26, 1982. SEP Approved Num. 01-0832-18
The next generation of Bioethicists
Help us support training of the next generation of bioethicists in Malawi, India, Nigeria, Philippines and other countries in need. To develop professors, health personnel, researchers to be able analyze and propose solutions to the global bioethical dilemmas.
August 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the introduction – in the scientific arena – of the neologism “neuro-ethics” by Harvard neuropsychiatrist Anneliese Alma Pontius (1921-2018). Since 2009, thanks to the work of the Interdisciplinary Research Group in Neurobioethics (GdN) of the Faculty of Philosophy of the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum (APRA) in Rome, the term has acquired a personalist connotation.
After 15 years of research experience – and since 2017 having delved into the contexts of transhumanism, the so-called “head transplantation” in humans, robotics (roboethics), artificial intelligence (algor-ethics), neurotechnologies and current developments in virtual reality, augmented reality, and the Metaverse, from September 2023 to June 2024, the GDN will be offering a training course on neuroethics with the aim of critically “remapping” this interdisciplinary context of reflection on the neurosciences and their interpretations.
The Course also aims to raise the participants’ awareness about the relevance of neuroethical reflection in the multiple contemporary scenarios in which we live, move, and are. This 7th Advanced Training Course “Neurobioethics: remapping the territory” will offer a package of 10 seminars, round-table discussions, and the conference in March 2024 within the framework of the Brain Awareness Week promoted by the DANA Foundation, through which the historical genesis of the birth of neuroethics and the different paradigmatic models encountered today will be compared. Along the way, various areas of this reflection will be specifically presented: from the context of consciousness to neuroaesthetics, from neurolaw to sexual difference, and even including trans and posthuman backdrops.
The course will be in Italian and English and streamed online. Participants will be able to follow the course in synchronous and asynchronous modes.
Promoters:
Faculty of Philosophy
UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights
Institute of Science and Faith
COURSE STRUCTURE
September 29, 2023 to 27-10-2023
The course consists of a monthly two-hour meeting (seminar or round-table), 5-7 p.m.
26/01: 17-19:00 23/02: 17-19:00 15/03: World Brain Week Conference
19/04: 17-19:00 24/05: 17-19:00 21/06: 17-19:00
The specific contents and speakers will be communicated month by month and will range from technological, neurological, neurosurgical, psychiatric, psychological, ethical, bioethical, legal and theological aspects related to the concept of “Metaverse”.
WHO SHOULD APPLY? The program is aimed at all those who wish to learn more about neuroscience and its interpretations to better understand themselves, the advances, and risks. In particular, politicians, engineers, physicians, bioethicists, philosophers, theologians, teachers, and formators. At the end of the Course, participants will be awarded a certificate for the advanced course and 3 ECTS credits will be awarded after the evaluation of a written synthesis paper.
By Analuisa Ahumada Madrigal, Student, Law School – Universidad Anahuac Queretaro
In Mexico there is a great problem with violence, connected to homicides. Mexico has registered around 91 deaths per day[1]; in the 7 entities which reported such statistics, it is said that 71% of the bodies are set to be unidentified[2]. However, there is an enormous problem concerning the dignity of unrecognized bodies, mainly because a dead person does not have the possibility of expressing wishes, purposes, suffering, or any type of resistance to the violence to which their body may be subjected[3]. In 2019 Mexico had a forensic crisis due to the war against drug trafficking during the six-year term of former President Felipe Calderon. The Forensic Medical Service (SEMEFO), registered the largest number of unidentified corpses ever seen. There were so many that no effort was even made to identify all of them. A study that was carried out on the forensic crisis found that 27,271 unrecognized bodies were taken to the “common grave”, 5,446 remain in SEMEFO and most impressively was that 2,589 bodies were donated to universities for experimentation[4]. Here is where the problem begins.
The law establishes that for the use of corpses of unknown persons, educational institutions may obtain them from establishments that provide medical care or social assistance services, but this becomes a problem for the dignity of the unidentified body, as well as causing violence to the family of the deceased person. Before death, the person did not consent to having his body donated to educational institutions where he could be subjected to experiments and various situations. In addition to that, his family will definitely no longer have the opportunity to find their relative. In Mexico, there is a “General Law of Victims” which establishes that victims have the right to know the truth and to receive specific information about crimes and violations of rights that had directly affected them[5]. If the corpse did not have post-mortem dignity, the law would not have to legislate against incorrect use of corpses. In the Mexican Federal Penal Code, it speaks about violations of rights in the privacy of the body, its image and its honor. In 2009 in Mexico, one of the largest cases of femicide – the campo algodonero case, which had occurred in 2001, was brought to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. In this case 8 women were found dead, but only three were identified[6]. No effort was made to identify the other five bodies. The authorities dealt out the remaining bodies to the families with no assurance that they were actually members of those families. Another clear example of the lack of dignity accorded to unidentified bodies and the seriousness of donating unidentified corpses to educational institutions is that in 2014, Mexico once again suffered one of the most controversial cases it has ever seen, the disappearance of 43 students from Ayotzinapa, Guerrero.
Another very important issue that must be touched on is organ or tissue donation, whether a body is identified or not, it could be the victim of organ extractions for donation or sale. In Mexico this arises from a socio-cultural issue. Even despite having holidays like the Day of the Dead, death is not really something accepted and above all it may be felt to be terrifying. Organ donation can occur from brain death, which will include head trauma from a motor vehicle accident, falls, gunshot wounds, haemorrhages in the brain from aneurysms and seizures, drug overdose, drowning, and poisoning. among others[7]. Therefore, if the cause of death was a homicide by gunshot wound, people will be able to organ-poaching or illegally sell these organs. For such reasons, there is a brisk market in illegal organ sales on the part of organised crime in Mexico. Besides selling organs, these criminals go to extreme lengths to erase any link to the people that have been kidnapped and murder to obtain these organs. Sick people and their relatives do not readily accept death. This fear is often due to not knowing what happens after death, worry about surviving loved ones and the fact of not knowing if the process will be painful or not. I previously mentioned that a person is most vulnerable at the moment of death, since he can be the object of violence, modifications and extractions perpetrated on his body, and above all his last wishes regarding his body are not really fulfilled by the simple fact that he is no longer able to protest. Many people come to use the corpse as a mere object without that being the true desire of the person. Post-mortem dignity includes the times when the media take and use photos of the body and use them in publications, since they should not be exposed to the public. What we really need to consider is that even though the person has already died, their body still has dignity, and the family should be given respect and support. Finally, I believe that it is important to establish new regulations regarding unidentified bodies and, above all, to train the SEMEFO authorities so that they can have sufficient means to identify the massive number of bodies that need to be
[3]La Dignidad Post-Mortem en el Sistema Jurídico Mexicano. (2022). Comisión Estatal De Derechos Humanos Jalisco. Retrieved March 26, 2023, from https://cedhj.org.mx/revista%20DF%20Debate/articulos/revista_No18/ADEBATE-18-art2.pdf
[6]“Campo Algodonero”: Caso González y otras vs. México | Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos – México. (n.d.). https://www.cndh.org.mx/noticia/campo-algodonero-caso-gonzalez-y-otras-vs-mexico
