Global Bioethics: The Impact of the UNESCO International Bioethics Committee

The UNESCO International Bioethics Committee is an international body that sets standards in the field of bioethics. This collection represents the contributions of the IBC to global bioethics. The IBC is a body of 36 independent experts that follows progress in the life sciences and its applications in order to ensure respect for human dignity and freedom. Currently, some of the topics of the IBC contributions have been discussed in the bioethics literature, mostly journal articles. However, this is a unique contribution by the scholars who developed these universal declarations and reports. The contributors have not only provided a scholarly up to date discussion of their research topics, but as members of the IBC they have also discussed specific practical challenges in the development of such international documents. This book will be suited to academics within bioethics, health care policy and international law.

• Ethics and Law in Bioethics
• Ethics in Traditional Medicine
• Global Bioethics
• Global bioethics as social bioethics
• UNESCO Universal Declaration on bioethics and Human Rights
• UNESCO international bioethics committee

“Edited by Bagheri, Moreno and Semplici, this book goes beyond tracing the impact of the UNESCO International Bioethics Committee’s work and seeks to present a vision of how global bioethics should emerge as it continues to evolve. … In trying to record the impact of UNESCO’s international legal instruments, the different chapters provide an insight into the dynamics of international negotiations – among international agencies, national governments, academics and other stakeholders -- that have gone on to promote global bioethics and effectively ensure that this is a process of continuing conversation rather than a finished product.” (Prof. Leonardo D. de Castro, Editor-in-Chief of Asian Bioethics Review, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Biomedical Ethics, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore)

“Bagheri, Moreno and Simplici are to be congratulated for bringing together a historic volume of essays on the 20 years of the UNESCO Bioethics Committee.  The work helps to show that bioethics is not a Northern pursuit, but truly a global one; that it is not an abstract pursuit, but truly a practical one; and that it matters in the work of governments around the world.  UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova captures well the significance of the work when she says: "In the last twenty years, I believe this is perhaps UNESCO’s greatest achievement – our relentless determination to link ethics with science ... .” (Peter Singer OC, CEO Grand Challenges Canada)

• Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

  Alireza Bagheri

• University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA

  Jonathan D. Moreno

• Faculty of Humanities and Philosophy, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy

  Stefano Semplici

Policies and ethics