EACME Newsletter 30

Download the full May 2012 EACME Newsletter

Contents

EDITORIAL  P. Schotsmans

HUMAN RIGHTS AS A LINGUA FRANCA FOR INTERNATIONAL BIOETHICS  R. Ashcroft

AN ETHICAL ANALYSIS OF TWO PROPOSED STRATEGIES TO SHORTEN THE WAITING TIME OF PEDIATRIC KIDNEY TRANSPLANT CANDIDATES  K. Thys

(Ants) ANTHROPOTECH SEMINAR AND DISCUSSION LIST  S. Allouche

PREVENTION DE L’HOMOPHOBIE EN SUISSE: LES CHOSES AVANCENT  J. Martin

INTRODUCING THE BIPIC STUDY   G. Birchley

PACT PROJECT 

TELL ME PROJECT 

BOOK REVIEW  J. Martin

INTENSIVE COURSE ON FOUNDATIONAL APPROACHES, CONTEMPORARY AND EDUCATIONAL ISSUES IN THE FIELD OF NURSING ETHICS

ANNOUNCEMENTS 11

DEADLINE NEXT NEWSLETTER 12

EDITORIAL BOARD

Editorial

Living bio-ethics on a gondola.

Good memories to Father Francesc Abel s.j.

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 attendance of Father Abel was announced, but he was not yet there when I arrived. Suddenly, I saw him arriving from the Airport on a gondola…very “expensive” as he said, but the only way for him (with his difficulty for walking and moving) to arrive safely at our meeting place. To be honest: it felt like as my father in the real sense arrived. His presence made us all feel at ease: we could start to work. And working he did! He made a very strong intervention as a reaction on Eberhard Schockenhoff’s lecture, a reaction welcomed by the great majority of participants.  I try to remember him, almost being with his hands on my shoulder during my whole lifetime in bioethics. Father Abel contributed to the spread of bioethics all over the world (e.g. also in Latin America), but he was certainly the key figure of bioethics in Europe. He may really be called “the father of European bioethics”, and certainly the godfather of the European Association of Centers of Medical Ethics. In this context I am still impressed by his restless commitment to the construction of a European bioethics network; his crossing borders to the United States; and most importantly of all: he was a deeply dialogical partner in exchanging ideas in a highly pluralistic bio-ethical environment.

Paul Schotsmans

Professor of Medical Ethics, Faculty of Medicine, KU Leuven

Vice-Chair of the Belgian Federal Advisory Committee on Bioethics

Past-President of the European Association of Centers of Medical Ethics

Paul.Schotsmans@med.kuleuven.be

Download the full May 2012 EACME Newsletter