The 17th International Summer Course in Bioethics is organized by the School of Bioethics of the Pontifical Ateneo Regina Apostolorum.with the collaboration of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights established at the Pontifical Regina Apostolorum Athenaeum and with the Università Europea di Roma. 30 scholarships for attending any one-week session are open to university-level students.
After the introductory week on Current Challenges in Bioethics from July 2-6, the second week course from July 9-13 is Human Enhancement: Bioethical Challenges of Emerging Technologies. The summer course is sponsored by the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights.
2-6 July 2018: Current Challenges in Bioethics
What can I do? What should I do? No human action can escape these questions.
The answers to them are not always clear; moral choices are often not at all easy. Complex situations arise when we face suffering or when we have to make life-or-death choices.
Other cases may be difficult only because they raise new questions for which we feel unprepared. Bioethics addresses all these questions and, with an interdisciplinary methodology that combines scientific knowledge with philosophical and theological reflections, it guides us to the right answers.
This Summer Course on Introduction to Bioethics offers an overview of bioethical issues in light of the basic principles that guide our practical choices. Some examples of such choices include whether to start a therapy that could have serious consequences, what a couple may ethically do in order to have or not have a child, what we should do with frozen embryos, how we should teach young people to respect their bodies and not play around with their lives, how we should deal with homosexual tendencies, and to what extent rapid progress in science and technology—cloning, neuroscience, nanotechnology—can “improve” man.
The course will address these and other situations relevant to bioethics, with the help of multimedia materials, lectures by professors from Regina Apostolorum and other experts, and group work. Because human action is always interwoven with ethical questions, we will seek the right answers together, investigating the truth for the sake of life.
This introductory course held from July 2-6, 2018, is offered for those who would like to have a greater comprehension of bioethics principles and different bioethical issues.
More info at:
https://www.upra.org/offerta-formativa/facolta/bioetica/corso-estivo/
9-13 July 2018: Human Enhancement: Bioethical Challenges of Emerging Technologies
Human enhancement technologies are used not only to treat diseases and disabilities, but also to increase human capacities and qualities (motor, mental, emotional and aesthetic, and so on). Certain enhancement technologies are already available, for instance, reproductive technologies and plastic surgery. Other technologies are called emerging due to their innovative aspect, such as genetic engineering. There are also speculative technologies, which are only a work hypothesis in biomedical research, for example, mind uploading.
A study and analysis of human behavior, as well as the research, production and use of these technologies from bioethical, social, and legal standpoints, seem appropriate and necessary. On the one hand, the scientific community has taken an increasing interest in these innovations and allocated substantial public and private resources to them. On the other hand, such research can have an impact, positive or negative, on individuals, the society, and future generations.
The second week course from July 9-13 offers an interdisciplinary study of human enhancement to better understand the techniques, the benefits, and the inherent risks of these technologies. What will be the impact on our understanding of being human—human nature as we understand it today—and what are the possible consequences for future generations?
Practical information
The courses begin on Monday 2 July and 9 July 2018 respectively at 9 a.m. (Rome Time)
Via degli Aldobrandeschi 190, 00163 Rome
Room: Aula Master, 1st floor
How to join the event?
Registration is necessary in order to join the course.
Any trouble in joining? Send us an email at [email protected]
You can’t join now, but you are interested?
Send us your e-mail address at [email protected] and we will keep you updated on our future bioethics courses.
