KARACHI, Oct 8: The Centre of Biomedical Ethics and Culture (CBEC) was inaugurated at the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation by the chief of the Higher Education Commission, Prof Atta-ur-Rahman, on Friday morning. The centre is the first of its kind in the country.

The CBEC would play a role in resolving issues in biomedical ethics, especially those pertaining to Pakistani doctors and patients, according to experts who spoke at its inaugural ceremony. In the discipline of biomedical ethics, it was stated, the flow of information and ideas had traditionally been from the western countries to the eastern ones.

It would be the CBEC's objective to try and reverse this trend somewhat, said the CBEC's chief, Prof Farhat Moazzam. This, she said, would be managed through publication of papers in internationally recognized journals. Short courses, seminars, workshops and lectures would also be held by the centre which would deal with relevant topics.

The first in the series of such events would be held in early April which would be entitled "Foundations of Moral Thought: From the Greeks to Contemporary Bioethics", said Prof Moazzam.

Unlike the events of similar nature which were organized in the West, the one to be organized by CBEC would deal in considerable detail with the Islamic concepts of morality and moral thought.

Prof Moazzam said seminars and workshops on bioethics were increasingly getting popular in Pakistan but to hold such events the organizers either had to depend on a handful of experts who were available locally or invite foreign professors and academics. "This will change soon because once the CBEC gets going, it will produce several experts of its own, she added.

Speaking as chief guest on the occasion, Prof Atta-ur-Rahman said Pakistan could not make much progress unless the creative talents of its youth was unleashed in a meaningful manner. However, this could not take place until quality education is provided to a majority of the Pakistani children.

He said the countries which had realized fully that knowledge was the key driver of socio-economic development had made far more headway than those nations that had not. Pakistan lagged behind many other countries because it had historically failed to realize this factor. He, however, claimed that things had started to change for the better in Pakistan.

The funding for the public-sector universities, which once stood at Rs800 million, had increased by several hundred per cent in the last couple of years, Prof Rahman pointed out. And Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had promised that the funding would be increased considerably each year.

Prof Rahman said the country had about 100 million youths which, if trained and educated properly, could prove to be an asset. But the same group of people could become a burden if their capabilities were not allowed to blossom.

Prof Adibul Hasan Rizvi spoke of the ethical issues faced by him and his team, right since the inception of his Sindh Institute for Urology and Transplantation which at the time had only eight beds.

The first critical question that he faced related to the total number of patients that he could register because refusing treatment to a renal failure patient was almost equivalent to issuing a death warrant.

A related question that could be raised in this regard was, whom to treat and whom to abandon. "Should the selection of the patients be based on their cast, creed, colour, religion or education?" he asked. Similarly, what should be done about the people who donated organs?

"Who should look after this group of people? And should we stop treating them once the transplantation has been done?" He added that transplantation was one area which threw up particularly disturbing questions.

In his speech, Dr Luc Noel of the WHO, Geneva, said organ transplantation was a difficult area vis-a-vis biomedical ethics. "The area of deceased donors is especially troublesome because many cultures demanded that the dead were respected even after death."

He was of the view that adequate laws be formulated that could effectively govern organ donation and transplantation. On the internet, said Dr Noel, adverts could be seen which solicited organ donation.

He said it was the responsibility of the international community to protect the impoverished sections of the society from exploitation. Dr Noel called for a global consensus on this issue.

In his extended lecture, Prof Paul Lombardo of the University of Virginia, traced the history of Eugenics, under which laws were drafted that were aimed at ridding the world of people with dubious characteristics. In the first half of the last century, this discipline, he explained, was quite popular in the US.

However, later people realized that the discipline was not a good one and it eventually withered away. He wondered loudly whether Eugenics foreshadowed genetic engineering of this century.

HEC TO help SIUT: The government had succeeded in attracting back home 43 academics who were working in well-known institutions abroad under an initiative aimed at reversing the brain drain, claimed the chief of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) on Friday.