The 17 th World Congress of Bioethics was hosted by Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU)’s Research Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics (CILE) at the College of Islamic Studies (CIS). The Chairperson of Qatar Foundation (QF) H. H. Sheikha Moza bint Nasser attended the 17th World Congress of Bioethics in Doha on 4 th June, 2024.
HBKU ‘s President Dr. Ahmad M Hasnash while addressing the august audience remarked that the main challenge facing humanity has been mostly the ethical challenge. And this challenge encompasses arenas in the artificial intelligence or global politics. The various ethical challenges that are rising on multiple fronts and dimension are impacting humanity. A single viewpoint or philosophical approach hardly suffices to address this ethical dilemma and in policy formulation.
He focused upon inclusivity where no voice be left out and Hamad Bin Khalifa University endeavors to follow this inclusivity. Sultana Afdhal, WISH CEO and co-chair of the event, remarked that the balancing of international perspectives and evidence-based research are best practices in health science with those rooted in the
religious values and cultural traditions of the Gulf region, and the broader Arab-Muslim world has been a cornerstone of the perspective of the organisation called WISH with special interest to healthcare ethics. The topics of the WISH centered around the ethical management of AI in healthcare at such a landmark event in the presence of thought-leaders from the bioethics community, and WISH look forward to continued collaboration with HBKU and CILE in this critical field.
It is to be noted further that the Director of CILE and Chair of the Congress, Mohammed Ghalymoderated a panel discussion entitled, “Reaching worlds and intersecting pathways: Religion, culture, diversity and global bioethics.” The discussion panel comprised of Sultana Afdhal; Dr. Caesar Atuire, President of the International Association of Bioethics; Dr. Voo Teck Chuan, Communication Officer of the International Association of Bioethics; Dr. Said Ismail, Acting President and Chief Scientific and Operations Officer of Qatar Precision Health Institute; Dr. Khalid Fakhro, Chief Research Officer at Sidra Medicine; and Dr. Julian Savulescu, Director, Centre for Biomedical Ethics, National University of Singapore. Mohammed Ghaly pointed out that the relationship between science, especially health science has strong connection with religion. Ethics put balance back in the relationship between physician’s responsibilities and his/her patients. He believed we need proper ethical management. And when we talk of gene editing it involves the questions -what should we do and what should be done.
There is moral law and shared responsibility of individuals in the global crisis. To him there is under representation of voices from Qatar and the Arab world when we talk of ethical management and scientific enquiry in the various issues mentioned. Sultana Afdhal pointed out that her organisation’s work integrates with the summit’s aim. She said that occurrence of the summit in the Qatar is a helpful step to bridge the gap between the scientific community and the Islamic influence. She opined that people who come to summit and those attending Islamic Bioethical topics are not limited to Muslims but goes beyond and this shows how things are expanding with time.
In fact, Dr. Caesar Atuire the incoming President revealed that Internal Association of Bioethics (IAB) also believed in inclusivity. IAB has members from across the globe and the site selection was an attempt to apply bioethical principles to the case as example. Site selection situates a conference not only in a geographic region, but in a larger socio-cultural landscape, where certain racial or ethnic religious, and other social identities predominate which can shape choices pertaining to theme, topics and speakers of conference.
by Dr Piyali Mitra, Director/Secretary ICAEPA.