KARACHI, Jan 20: A two-day conference on “bioethics education” will commence on Jan 21, under the joint aegis of Centre for Biomedical Ethics and Culture, Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation and Unesco at SIUT.

Prof S. Adibul Hasan Rizvi will formally inaugurate the moot followed by a keynote address by Prof Anita Ghulam Ali on “induction of ethical concepts in education”. Unesco representative Dr Darry R.J. Macer will highlight the Unesco’s bioethics and ethics programme. Dr Farhat Moazzam will also address the inaugural session.

The formal inauguration will be followed by a session on postgraduate bioethics. Dr Amir M. Jafarey will give a presentation on diploma in biomedical ethics: capacity building in Pakistan. Dr Sahin Aksoy will talk on medical ethics teaching at postgraduate level in Turkey.

Dr Naeem Jafarey (Ziauddin Medical University), Dr Manal M Bouhaimed (Kuwait University), Dr Anoja Fernando (National Bioethics Committee, Colombo, Sri Lanka), Sister Daphne Furtado (Department of Medical Ethics, St John’s Medical College, Bangalore, India), Dr Arshi Farooqui (Aga Khan University) will be the key speakers during the second session.

Issues to be discussed would include medial education and teaching of ethics; undergraduate medical ethics training programme in Sri Lanka; undergraduate medical ethics education in multicultural setting; bioethics, longitudinal theme in undergraduate education: the experience from Pakistan.

The third session scheduled for Sunday would include high school bioethics with Dr Darryl Macer (regional adviser for social and human sciences in Asia and the Pacific-Unesco), Dr Lindsey Conner (Christchurch College of Education) and Zulfiqar Ali (Director, Human Rights Education Programme-Pakistan) as the main speakers.

Fourth session would comprise a round table discussion on the Unesco declaration on bioethics and human rights. — APP