The last time I met Father Abel was during the EACME (European Association of Centers of Medical Ethics) conference in Venice (September 2009). We were hosted at one of the beautiful places which only can be found by someone like Renzo Pegoraro of the Fondazione Lanza (Padova).
The year 2011 is coming to an end. Some of you will celebrate Christmas, others won’t, but none of us can withdraw from the enormous advertisement campaigns which roll over shops, stores and supermarkets.
The last EACME Newsletter’s Editorial included some hopeful prospects and, in the complicated humanity vicissitudes, we endeavoured to gather positive news, "revealing values in our global world".
Lately, there has been a lot happening in our global world. The media kept us updated about each event. Politically triggered revolutions in Northern African countries, a vast nuclear tragedy in Japan - all of these events are reported live to our living rooms as soon as we turn on the TV.
Dear colleagues, the year 2010 is approaching its end and we are looking back at a successful year for our association. This year, we had our conference organised in Oslo in September. The topic of ‘Empirical Ethics’ was tackled in interesting and inspiring talks and discussions.
As a philosopher, I quite often try to think about the very core of human beings. What does it really mean to be human? What is the most important feature of our conditio humana? For some time, I have thought that perhaps the core feature of human beings is not individualistic, but rather a commonality of the human race as a species, namely our cultural revolution.
I hope that this newsletter finds you all well. In this edition, we have some interesting and innovative contributions. Among others, you will find a report from France focusing on the issue of ‘reproductive cloning’ written by a new member of our editorial board (welcome: Jean Martin)