World Bioethics Day 2023 – ‘Protecting Future Generations’ was a great success

The World Bioethics Day 2023 – ‘Protecting Future Generations’ ran successfully on Wednesday, 18 October 2023, at the—packed to capacity—‘Ioannis Drakopoulos’ Amphitheatre of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA). The event was organized in a hybrid format by the Greek Unit of the International Chair in Bioethics (WMA Cooperating Center) in collaboration with the Applied Philosophy Research Lab of NKUA, the National Commission for Bioethics and Technoethics, the Open University of Cyprus, the European Laboratory of Bioethics, Technoethics, and Law, and the Research Center of Biopolitics at Panteion University.

The theme for this year’s event, ‘Protecting Future Generations’, drew its inspiration from Article 16 of the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (UDBHR), which explicitly states that ‘the impact of life sciences on future generations, including on their genetic constitution, should be given due regard’. Protecting future generations in Bioethics involves ensuring that the ethical principles and values that guide scientific research and medical practice today are sustained and strengthened for their benefit. It is a multidimensional imperative and includes creating an environment that promotes physical, mental, psychological, social, and moral health. It requires a commitment to ethical principles that advance personal and societal health and well-being, ongoing reflection, discussion, and collaboration among healthcare professionals, researchers, policymakers, and the public.

Prominent scientists from Greece, Cyprus, and other countries (see Programme), representing a variety of disciplines, participated in the event and shared their views on the critical bioethical issues it addressed. Also present were schoolchildren from the 4^th High School of Galatsi and the 17^th High School of Athens et al.

THE INTERNATIONAL CHAIR IN BIOETHICS (ICB)

The International Chair in Bioethics (ICB) is an international organization founded in 2001. Its mission is to serve humanity by striving to achieve the highest international standards in Bioethics, Medical Ethics, and Health Law Education. ICB is an independent organization based on a global network with over 260 Units across five continents. It provides a forum for its members to openly communicate, constructively collaborate, and reach consensus on high standards of Bioethics, Medical Ethics, and Health Law Education. ICB operates Professional Departments and an International Forum of Teachers (IFT) with over 1200 members. It is within the above context that 19 October became World Bioethics Day back in 2015.

For the first 20 years, ICB worked under the auspices of UNESCO (Haifa) and is now officially a World Medical Association (WMA) Cooperating Centre. For its part, WMA has a long history of involvement with ICB that has significantly intensified on the international level, notably through collaboration at the International Conference on Bioethics and, more recently, at the ICB Department of Education online activities.

The Greek Unit, representing our country in ICB, began operations in August 2015 at the NKUA’s Applied Philosophy Research Lab. It aims to promote bioethical discussion in our country and contextualize scientific and other social actions related to bioethical issues in close collaboration with other entities and institutions.

The Canadian BCI Media Inc was the media sponsor of the event.