INTERNATIONAL BIOETHICS COMMITTEE MEETS IN QUITO

 

Quito (Ecuador), November 8 (No 2000-111) - The present trends and future prospects of research into ageing and bioethics education were the first subjects to be addressed by UNESCO’s International Bioethics Committee (IBC) which has been meeting since November 7 in Quito to pursue their reflection on the ethical and legal issues raised by research in the life sciences and their application.

During the opening of the session, Georges Kutukdjian, Secretary General of the IBC and representing the Director-General of UNESCO, thanked Ecuador “one of the first countries in Latin America to have established a national bioethics committee” for hosting the meeting. He added: “Not a week goes past without reports in scientific journals or major newspapers recounting new genetic discoveries. These discoveries and their application in biomedicine concern all countries, whether developed or developing.”

Ryuichi Ida (Japan), who was re-elected to chair the IBC, declared: “Today, our grasp of the human genome is nearly complete. […] The genetic data of each individual will give us tailor-made medicine. Nevertheless, these genetic characteristics may be used wrongfully to operate all sorts of discrimination, even to negate human life.” He also recalled that the responsibility of the IBC does not stop at the human genome: “All scientific developments concerning human life enter into our field of action”, he said.

The Vice President of Ecuador, Pedro Pinto Rubianes, insisted that the advances of science and technology were bewildering for ordinary citizens: “It is natural that in the face of such perplexity, people seek morally acceptable solutions and that such solutions be turned into standards for future action.” On this subject, he reiterated his country’s support for the Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights and said that “it is the duty of those who possess genetic information to share it with the rest of the human family without discrimination or any kind of exploitation.”

On the first day of the session, a roundtable debate under the title “Bioethics Education” - moderated by the President of Italy’s Bioethics Committee, Giovanni Berlinguer - brought together Amnon Carmi, President of the World Association for Medical Law (WAML); Myriam Cotler, Director of the Department of Life Sciences at California State University; Leonardo D. De Castro, Professor of Philosophy at the University of the Philippines; Fernando Lolas Stepke, Director of the Regional Bioethics Program of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO); and Darryl Macer, Director of the Eubios Ethics Institute (University de Tsukuba, Japon).

In his introduction, Mr Berlinguer stressed the two main features of bioethics education: the education of professionals and bioethics education in schools and said that both aspects, though fundamental, remain underdeveloped. Mr Berlinguer added that bioethics education in schools must begin at the primary level and that the interaction between teachers and students is indispensable because it must, above all, stimulate personal choices and the participation of each and everyone in the collective decision-making process.

Amnon Carmi presented the UNESCO-backed International Project on Ethics Education in Medical Schools which covers thirty countries and enjoys the support of the leading professional bodies. His assessment of the present situation was severe: “Ethics education has not received adequate attention in medical schools throughout the world.” Myriam Cotler, for her part, discussed the principal objectives of medical ethics and its main pitfalls. “Medical decisions are usually choices. They are based on facts, probabilities and uncertain outcomes. The essential act of the profession is making the choice between what can and what should be done for a given patient”, she declared. Rejecting the idea that medicine is the sum total of its constituent disciplines, she defined medicine as the choice of the “right decision - one that is good for the patient”.

Leonardo D. De Castro considered the subject from a totally different perspective and proclaimed the need for a more democratic approach to bioethics education: “Education in bioethics means more than merely providing information. If it is to be meaningful, it should make available - to the widest possible audience - a forum for community debate […]. Such a forum should facilitate a social process of ‘reflective conversation’”.

A democratic approach which particularly targets the least educated, members of the most underprivileged and weakest sectors of society, requires the utilisation of the most efficient vehicles for the dissemination of information, the media, Mr De Castro argued. To make his point, he spoke of the rights protecting medical research patients, which have been formulated to the attention of researchers and members of ethical watchdog organisations, rather than for the patients themselves.

Fernando Lolas Stepke presented the Regional Bioethics Program of the Pan American Health Organization and some of its experiences, notably in the utilisation of cartoons targeting 12 to 18-year-olds. For his part, Darryl Macer declared that he had received his first lesson in bioethics when his umbilical cord had been cut, making him an autonomous unit. His second lesson came when he started sucking his mother’s milk, which made him aware of his dependence on others. He considered that bioethics education starts at birth and that its efficiency depends on having open eyes and ears. “It aims to give people the tools with which to face moral dilemmas,” he added.

Prior to the roundtable, Huber Warner, Associate Director of the Biology of Aging Program of the National Institute on Aging (USA), made a presentation on current trends in gerontology research, notably in genetics.

The meeting continues until November 9, and will feature, among other subject, the presentation of the report on the ethical aspects of embryonic stem cell research.

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