January 23, 2003	Thursday	Ziqa’ad 19, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 22: The Organization of Islamic Conference Standing Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation (COMSTECH) has set up an International Committee on Bioethics (CICB).

The committee will address the ethical side of issues like abortion, gender selection, patenting of human DNA, human cloning, embryonic stem cell, surrogate motherhood, gene therapy, infertility, pre-natal diagnosis, artificial insemination, genetic screening, genetic counselling, intellectual property rights and patenting etc. from Islamic perspective.

The committee comprises notable Muslim scientists and religions scholars from Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Japan, USA, Syria, Lebanon, Tunisia and Pakistan. Dr. Anwar Nasim, Adviser Science, COMSTECH, has been appointed coordinator of the committee.

During the last decade there have been major breakthroughs in genetic engineering. The experiments related to human reproductive biology such as the cloning of human embryos and research with embryonic stem cells has given rise to complex ethical issues.

Working under Dr. Anwar Nasim, the committee will organize national and international conferences to discuss the current issues and set up mechanisms for sharing and exchanging information in the area of bioethics within OIC member countries for preparing policy guidelines on important issues.

The committee is also preparing a database of scholars and academicians from OIC member countries working in the area of bioethics. It will also compile a list of publications on bioethics by scholars from OIC member countries.

The committee comprises Asst. Prof. Dr. Sahin Aksoy, Chair, Dept of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine, Harran University, Turkey; Dr. Gamal Abou Al Serour, Director, International Islamic Centre for Population Studies and Research, Al-Azhar University, Egypt, Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Swailem, Director, Natural Resources and Environment Research Institute, KACST, Saudi Arabia; Alireza Bagheri, M.D., Department of Neurology, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Japan; Dr. Abdul Aziz Sachedina, Department of Histology, University of Damascus, Syria; Mr. Hamade Marwan, Minister, Ministry of Displaced, Lebanon; professor Ebrahim Moosa, Department of Religion, Duke; University, Durham, United States, and Dr. Noureldine Elkhadmi, Al-Zouhoor III, Tunisia.