Three-day conference on bioethics kicks off at SIUT

Experts speaking at a three-day international collaborative conference on bioethics that opened at the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) on Tuesday called for enhancing the agenda of bioethics globally.

The conference has been jointly organised by the Centre of Bioethics and Culture (CEBEC) of SIUT and their counterpart from Indonesia.  Experts from WHO and UNESCO are also taking part in the conference, which is aimed at promoting the concept of bioethics education and the challenges faced in this field at a global level.

In his welcome address, SIUT Director Professor Adib Rizvi highlighted the economic and social disparity between the developed and underdeveloped world.  He said massive exploitation of resources and socio-economic injustices have divided the world in two different zones. “In the underdeveloped world, almost 80 percent of the population remains disfranchised, which means that basic rights such as access to healthcare and education are still a luxury for them.” 

Prof Rizvi pointed out that SIUT was the only medical institution in Pakistan which had a bioethics centre for discussing ethical challenges in the world of medical sciences.  He lauded the efforts of CEBEC for supplementing the clinical activities of SIUT by discussing and projecting the ethical issues of the medical world.

Others who spoke at the opening session included Dr Farhat Moazzam, chairperson of the CEBEC, who discussed the challenges of developing Pakistan’s first bioethics centre. Dr Beth Rivin, professor of law from the University of Washington; Professor Yati Soearto, a paediatrician from Indonesia; Ms Abha Saxena and Dr Ahmed Mandil, both from WHO; and Dr Susan Vize, regional adviser for Unesco, were the other speakers. Moreover, Dr Amer Jaffery of CEBEC and Dr Shahid Shamin, an alumnus of CEBEC, spoke on education and teaching tools for bioethics.