CFP: Global Bioethics

Since the pioneer years of coining the term “bioethics”, there has been an emphasis on expanding the limitations of medical bioethics to an ecological perspective and, in the words of V. R. Potter, to form the science of survival for whole humankind; science, which will join in action the knowledge from the science of living systems and the knowledge of human value systems. As such, the problem orientation of bioethics is to respond on the questions which are in itself global, interdisciplinary, and focused on long-term and sustainable solutions.

Despite this, bioethics has in the last decades started to face numerous challenges, which are linked to its global dimensions. Thishas led to establishment of a new discipline, Global Bioethics. Even the existence of the global market represents an important factor (medical tourism, organ trade, globalized biomedical research), the problem goes far beyond the internationalization of bioethics and opening its topics around the world. There is also an important conflict between the aims of finding the universal and transcultural framework of bioethical principles and of its cultural representation and interpretation around the world. Global bioethics rejects the idea of Western values to be simple transmitted to different cultural, regional, religious, and social settings. This necessitates a critical approach to analyse core bioethical ideas and ethical frameworks in light of its contextual setting. Thirdly, there are new health and life challenges for humankind worldwide, such as famine, climate change, pandemics, humanitarian crisis, and inequality and inequity regarding health around the globe, and many others, which often mirrors the relationship between the so-called global north and global south. 

In order to address these complex questions, the conference Global Bioethics is organized. The aim is to analyse not only the scope of global bioethics, but also its original methodological approach, which, due to its problems and topics, needs special consideration and methods of research (narrative-based medicine, comparative methods) in both, practice and education. The topics are expected to draw equally on the universal as well as cultural and local perspectives to bioethical issues. We would like to invite experts from philosophy, (bio)ethics, anthropology, cultural studies, psychology, humanitarian medicine, social and political sciences, etc. to join us in the open discussion on the present and the future of Global Bioethics.

Scope of Topics:

· The origin of global bioethics and its future scope;

· Methods and methodology in global bioethics (narrative-based

 medicine, global narratives, comparative health systems, etc.);

· Global health, its inequity, distribution, and guaranty;

· Culture and gender in global health;

· Global issues of the humanity: the ethical aspects of wars, terrorism, catastrophes, (over)population, famine, migration, and humanitarianism;

· Global bioethics in education – the perspective of professional education of health care professional;

· Global bioethics in education – Agenda 2030 from the perspective of global education and its goals.

Contact: 

Katarína Komenská, PhD. ([email protected])

Lívia Flachbartová, PhD. ([email protected])