Press Release – Multicultural and Interreligious Perspective on Informed Consent

Feb 19, 2018 | News

 

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. The discussion will take place in the Aula Master of the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum and the European University of Rome, in Via degli Aldobrandeschi, 190 in Rome (reserved entry).

“We do believe in the importance of this day of study and dialogue on such an important topic – says Alberto Garcia, director of the Chair – because in scientific research we find gaps, barriers and practices in the process of requesting informed consent. Too often the human person and his fundamental rights, the cultural and religious diversity of the subjects in biomedical experimentation are not fully taken into consideration. We want to study and fill this gap in response to the main asset of the project launched by the European Union”.

“Informed consent is a subject that is not only medical,” explains Mirko Garasic, researcher of the Chair – “but which invests the person’s culture and religion. To assume that all the world’s traditions are willing to accept that the individual-centric approach of autonomy at the base of informed consent is short-sighted and counterproductive. For this reason, our workshop is important: we need to start from the common values ​​that the various faiths share, to analyze the differences together and to adapt (also) health policies to more complex and less monolithic situations “.

“It is important to discuss and face the limit between the autonomous and relational self in informed consent” – continues Fr. Joseph Tham, LC professor of Bioethics – “together with Prof. Marie Letendre we have analyzed over time the analysis of autonomy in informed consent is changing. It is moving from a concept of autonomous decision-making process to a more articulate and relational relationship between patient-doctor.
Therefore, we aimed to demonstrate the shift from an individualist to a more relational form that helps to understand the autonomy in giving consent, without neglecting the cultural and ethical aspects of the health system”.

The panel of speakers and the audience are international and from different backgrounds; there will be contributions and reflections from influential exponents of various religions (Buddhism, Confucianism, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam).

 

APRA Press Office, Dr. Emiliana Alessandrucci ealessandrucci@upra.org

UER Press Office, Carlo Climati carlo.climati@unier.it

Attached – Detailed program

_____________________________________________________

Feb 20, Tuesday

Arrival

Welcoming dinner

 

Feb 21, Wednesday

8:00     Breakfast at hotel

9:00     Greetings by authorities and Introduction

Alberto Garcia, Gonzalo Miranda, Jesus Villagrasa.

10:00   Multiculturalism, Religion and Informed Consent: Mirko Garasic

11:00   Coffee break

11:30   UDBHR and informed consent: Dafna Feinholz

12:15   Informed Consent: From Autonomous to Relational self:

Marie-Catherine Letendre, Joseph Tham

13:00   Lunch

14:30   Buddhism: Ellen Zhang

16:00   Coffee break

16:30   Christianity: Laura Palazzani

18:00   Break

19:00   Dinner in Rome

 

Feb 22, Thursday

8:00     Breakfast at hotel

9:00     Confucianism: Ruiping Fan

10:30   Coffee break

11:00   Hinduism: John Lunstroth

12:30   Departure for lunch and cultural activity

19:00   Public session: Religion, Human Rights and Informed Consent

Ellen Zhang, Martha Tarasco, Ruiping Fan, John Lunstroth, Aasim Padela, David Heyd

Moderators: Joseph Tham and Mirko Garasic

20:30   Refreshment / Cocktail

 

Feb 23, Friday

8:00     Breakfast at hotel

9:00     Islam: Aasim Padela

10:30   Coffee break

11:00   Judaism: David Heyd

12:30   Break

13:00   Lunch

14:30   Conclusion

16:00   Farewell and departure

 

Participants

 

  • Dafna Feinholz, UNESCO, Paris
  • Ellen Zhang, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong
  • Aasim Padela, University of Chicago, USA
  • Ruiping Fan, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
  • David Heyd, Hebrew University, Jerusalem
  • Laura Palazzani, LUMSA, Rome
  • Martha Tarasco, Anáhuac University, Mexico City
  • John Lunstroth, University of Houston, USA
  • Alberto Garcia, UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights, Rome
  • Gonzalo Miranda, School of Bioethics, Regina Apostolorum, Rome
  • Joseph Tham, School of Bioethics, Regina Apostolorum, Rome
  • Mirko Garasic, UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights, Rome

Follow this link to read more about Religious Perspectives on Bioethics and Human Rights book presentation.

Foto Gallery

 

Prof. Mirko D. Garasic, UNESCO Chair Research Scholar, published in Bioetica – Rivista Interdisciplinare

Jan 17, 2018 | News

Prof. Garasic engaged in a discussion on his book Guantanamo and Other Cases of Enforced Medical Treatment (Springer, 2015) http://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319226521 has on the Italian Journal “Bioetica -Rivista Interdisciplinare (3;2017; year XXV) where exchanged views on the topic with international scholars Dr. Zohar Lederman (National University of Singapore), Prof. Mario Picozzi (University of Insubria) and Prof. Giovanni Scarafile (University of Salento).

International Workshop: Public Reason and Bioethics

Jan 15, 2018 | News

By Dominic Farrell LC –

Two professors from the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, Dominic Farrell LC (Faculty of Philosophy) and Joseph Tham LC (Faculty of Bioethics), took part in an International Workshop on Public Reason and Bioethics at Chinese University of Hong Kong (4-5 January 2018). The workshop was organised by the Department of Philosophy and Centre Bioethics of CUHK, and supported by a GRF grant.

The concept of public reason has come to the fore of political philosophy since the 1990’s, largely due to John Rawls influential writings. In increasingly pluralist societies, it is necessary to find reasons which all members of the public can endorse when it comes to important political decisions, including those on bioethical matters.

Prof. Alastair Campbell (Visiting Professor in Medical Ethics and Emeritus Director of the Centre for Biomedical Ethics, National University of Singapore) provided an introductory explanation of how bioethics has come to have some need for the concept of public reason.

The central part of the workshop consisted of the presentation and discussion of three rival versions of public reason, and each one’s bearing on bioethical issues.

The case for a liberal conception of public reason was made by Prof. Terence Hua Tai (Distinguished Professor, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan) and Prof. Hon-Lam Li (Department of Philosophy and Deputy Director of the Centre for Bioethics, Chinese University of Hong Kong). Prof. Tai outlined Kant’s conception of public reason, explaining how it differs from the standard liberal accounts of public reason and proves more flexible than is commonly imagined. Prof. Li proposed that T.M. Scanlon’s contractualism provides the best available basis for public reason and for addressing the issue of physician-assisted death.

Prof. Ruiping Fan (Chair Professor, Department of Public Policy, City University of Hong Kong) assessed the proposals, made by several scholars, of a Confucian conception of public reason. He argued that the only viable Confucian conception of public reason is a reconstructionist one, that is, one which draws exclusively on the Confucian tradition’s own internal resources. He also considered how Confucianism would address the issue of physician-assisted suicide.

Prof. Dominic Farrell and Prof. Joseph Tham argued that the natural law tradition provides a sophisticated account of public reason. By conceiving public reason as a shared truth-directed enquiry regarding the common good of political society, it does not bracket but acknowledges the second-order issues which legislation on bioethical issues must inevitably address. Political liberalism, by bracketing these issues, runs the risk of making arbitrary legislative decisions on important bioethical issues. Furthermore, the natural law tradition’s philosophy of law provides reasons for restricting the scope of legislation on such issues.

Dr. Michael Campbell (Researcher, Centre for Ethics as Study in Human Value, Department of Philosophy, University of Pardubice, Czech Republic) provided a critical assessment of the concept of public reason, recognising the need for it, but also pointing to the problems surrounding it.

Due to the friendly and reasoned exchange of views, the workshop was, much to the credit of CUHK, a miniature exercise of public reason in bioethics.

 

 

Prof. Mirko D. Garasic, UNESCO Chair Research Scholar, published in AJOB Neuroscience:

Dec 6, 2017 | News

Prof. Mirko D. Garasic, UNESCO Chair Research Scholar, published in AJOB Neuroscience:

Why HEAVEN Is Not About Saving Lives at All

 

“Life extension is one of the main goals of Posthumanism and—though camouflaged as a therapeutic operation—HEAVEN could be the Trojan horse through which it would become acceptable to keep on “staying alive” by changing bodies to our heads (assuming, for the sake of argument, that our identity resides only in the latter). This overlooked scenario makes the operation even more controversial.”

In line with one of the areas of interest of the UNESCO Chair Neurobioethics and the Neurobioethics Reserach Group, led by UNESCO Chair fellow Fr. Alberto Carrara, L.C., Prof. Garasic’s article focuses on some of the key features of the Posthuman ideology in relation to life extension “through all the available biotechnologies [which] would include becoming stronger, becoming smarter, and, of course, living longer— or forever.”

The UNESCO Chair first concern is to cooperate towards the realization of workshops and publications regarding contemporary debates on Transhumanism, Posthumanism, Neurobioethics, Neuroscience, Human Rights, and Bioethics. The Chair persists with its experience in fostering the art of convergence and cooperation in global ethics gathering scholars and experts to promote dialogue and the dissemination of bioethical principles. Click on the link to read about Prof. Mirko Garasic participation to the workshop Ethics and Technology: Some Issues held in Hamburg on November the 15th.