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Genetically
modified corn has become an issue between Europe and America, DNA-tests help police to identify
criminals and sometimes they free innocent people from the death row in the
US, but people are also scared that bad results may increase their
insurance fees (or health and life insurance may be even denied), countries
take different stands on stem cell research, genetically modified organisms
produce life-saving medicines, organ transplantation from genetically
modified animals to men seems to be possible, the cloning of animals is not
any more a sensation like the sheep Dolly, some scientists claim, so far
without evidence, that they cloned already babies, medicine progresses in
an enormous speed and many hopes are linked to gene therapy, but at the
same time health care becomes more and more expensive, at least partly
unaffordable to more and more people (not to speak about the Third World),
and analysts see our health care system already dying. The European Union
proclaimed rights related to bioethics in its Charter on Fundamental Rights
and Freedoms and the Council of Europe
adopted the European Convention on Biomedicine and Human Rights. But what
is missing is a dialogue between the various actors in the debate on
Bioethics. Therefore the European Democracy Forum will convene
a workshop of eminent scientists from all areas of life sciences and
ethics to discuss the relations interactions of science, ethics and
society. The European BIOETICA workshop will be followed by a series of
national BIOETICA workshops. Eminent scientists, outstanding representatives of the business
community, European policy makers as well as leading representatives
of International Organizations, Churches and NGOs will be invited by the
authorities of Alsace, Bas-Rhin, the City of Strasbourg and the European Democracy Forum to
gather in Strasbourg and meet
Official and Private Sectors’ Representatives from all over the World
and discuss “Bioethics
and European politics”, “Human sciences and ethics”,
“Genetics and the Protection of Personal Data”, The
‘Temptation’ of Eugenics”, “Bio-Terrorism and
Bio-Security”, “Bioethics
in different civilizations” and last but not least “Democratic
Challenges of Bioethics”.
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