CFP: Bioethics and Regenerative Medicine

In the last few decades R&D in the biomedical field has been providing therapeutic solutions to a number of clinical applications. In addition to the treatment of diseases triggered by genetic factors, traumatic conditions and serendipity /idiosyncratic causes, many biomedical technologies are applied to the treatment of pathologies related to ageing and lifestyle. Bioethical issues thus need to be discussed not only in the context of the impact of technology on the moral status of biological material and donors/recipients, but also on the basis of its role in the context of saving and/or improving the quality of life: that is to say, in the context of human dignity.

Aim
The aim of the workshop is to analyse bioethical issues in the field of tissue/organ replacement or regeneration -- i.e. regenerative medicine -- where clinical treatments involve the use of medical devices, artificial materials and stem cells (in relation only to cells harvested from adult donors, not from embryos).

Format
A two-day workshop bringing together colleagues in regenerative medicine and in medical- and bioethics for sustained discussion of these and related issues.

Issues

1. Should technology be assessed from a bioethical point of view as something quite separate from biology and its evolution?  Or should it rather be framed within the realm of natural processes and their selection mechanisms? Will these two different starting-points lead to different answers to bioethical questions?
2. What is the impact that the perception (or fear) of death and ageing has on individuals’ bioethical views?
3. We all regard quality of life as important. Do the concepts of human integrity and full biological capacity coincide and/or overlap? What is the role of psychological perception in this discourse? Does it make any difference if psychology is itself considered as a ‘product’ of biological evolution?
4. How is bodily integrity to be understood? Is my integrity threatened if an artificial material and/or a donor’s cells are implanted in my body?
5. What are the relations between human dignity and bodily integrity?
6. How might bioethical views change under the pressure of new technologies? 

  
Abstracts and/or Inquiries
Please send 300-word abstracts addressing these and/or related issues by 15 May 2012 to: [email protected]>

Costs
£95 / £45 concessions, to include registration, lunches, refreshments. 
Useful sites for finding accommodation (though it may be cheaper to book via other sites) are:
www.visitbrighton.com/accommodation
hotels.brighton.co.uk
tourism.brighton.co.u