International Conference on Human Vulnerability

October 9-11, 2011

Rome

International Conference on Human Vulnerability 

With the advance of biomedicine, certain individuals and groups are vulnerable because of their incapacities to defend themselves.  Many world religions include the protection of the weak, underprivileged and the poor as part of their mission.

Publication

“Religious Perspectives on Human Vulnerability in Bioethics” 

Editors: Fr. Joseph Tham; Alberto Garcia Gomez; Gonzalo Miranda L.C. …

Publisher: Springer Press

Year: 2015

Link: springer.com

Publication

Il Principio di Vulnerabilità nelle Religioni

Editors: Fr. Joseph Tham; Fr. Gonzalo Miranda; Josè Antonio Izquierdo …

Publisher: Studia Bioethica

Year: 2011

Link: Riviste UPRA

Religious perspectives on human vulnerability

By Fr. Joseph Tham, LC, MD, PhD.
Fellow, UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights

Who are the vulnerable?  What are the proper attitudes and responses toward them, especially in the field of biomedicine?

These were the questions discussed at a recent workshop held in Rome from October 9-11, with experts hailing from six world religions—Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism.  This was a follow-up to similar conferences held in Jerusalem two years ago organized by the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights.

The Principle of Vulnerability in the UNESCO Declaration

Protection of human vulnerability and personal integrity was promulgated in a 2005 UNESCO Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights.  However, as Fr. Gonzalo Miranda, LC notes, UN agencies in general do not take into account religious perspectives; even though they recognize that a great number of the world’s population is affiliated with some religious traditions.   Fr. Miranda represented the Holy See in the UNESCO during these meetings leading up to the Declaration.  The Spaniard spoke at the workshop about how the principle of vulnerability passed almost without any major debate among the delegates.

Prof. Henk ten Have who headed this UNESCO effort at the time explained that vulnerability is a new concept in bioethics.  As in any international document, they shied away from controversial terms such as “person” or “justice”.  Nonetheless, vulnerability applies not only to individuals but to families and other stigmatized groups, communities and populations.  There are certain circumstances which renders individuals and groups vulnerable.

This Dutch physician who now heads an ethics program at Duquesne University, explained further that there can be three types of vulnerability:   First, biological vulnerability – there is a state of corporal vulnerability based on innate traits, fragility and threats to the person.  Second, social vulnerability – there are conditions resulting from war, crimes, prejudice, hospitalization and poverty that place the burden of vulnerability.  Third, cultural vulnerability – there are particular traditions and conceptions of certain cultures that categorize, generally or specifically, individuals or groups and render them vulnerable.

Religious perspectives

A particular focus of this conference was the religious and cultural understanding of vulnerability in bioethics.   Sixteen speakers hailing from China, France, India, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Palestine, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand and USA presented papers on how their traditions offer support and protections to vulnerable groups, especially children before and after birth, women, the handicapped and the elderly.

It was clear from the beginning that with so many different religious traditions, and traditions within each tradition, many conceptual problems with vulnerability were raised.  The East-West contrast made discussion very interesting, and at times heated.  For instance, according to Buddhism, vulnerability is not something negative, but a fact of life.

P1050001There are, however, certain trends that can be detected across the board.  There isrecognition of our human condition with its limitations that calls for a response in all religions, albeit with different names: Mercy (hesed) in Judaism, Agape for Christians, Humaneness (ren) in Confucianism, and Compassion in Buddhism, etc.

At the same time, many participants of the workshop find the formulation of vulnerability based on the human rights language too individualistic.  This is somewhat foreign to major religions where the self does not exist in isolation, but is normally immersed in a web of relations—family, friends, religious community, and society.

The emphasis on those who are vulnerable demanding their rights to be protected or given special attention is critiqued as predominantly a Western liberal ideal, which in bioethics is translated to mean patient autonomy and free choice.  In contrast, Confucians place more emphasis on family decisions.  This is echoed in different ways in Hinduism, Islam and Judaism which speaks more of duties than rights towards the weak and underprivileged.  All three branches of Christianity represented at the workshop were not totally comfortable with the liberal exaltation of subjective individualism.

This is not to say that individual rights are unimportant.  In today’s democratic societies, laws have been drafted to protect individuals and communities against slavery, discrimination, torture or genocide.  Yet, there are enormous challenges for these age-old cultures as they catches up to modernity.  For instance, India needed to forego the caste system as unjust and discriminatory, even though this has been ingrained in millennium-long tradition of Hinduism.  Islamic traditions of laws and customs derived from Koranic revelation is at time at odds with international standards on issues such as the status of women or female circumcision.  Christianity has been confronting modernity for the last few centuries in the process called secularization.  While there are definite traces of Judeo-Christian influence in the genesis of human rights, there is palpable unease to include abortion and same-sex marriage as part of these rights.

By gathering experts from these religions, a rare space of dialogue has been created where an atmosphere of friendship and respect reigns.   As Catholics, the encyclical Caritas in Veritate offers us some indications on how to engage in interreligious dialogue to promote peaceful co-existence and solidarity, while avoiding the danger of cultural relativism or eclecticism (§ 26).

Such dialogue and encounters allow us to see the other as our brothers and sisters in our common humanity.   This is more urgent in our globalized reality, and can eliminate suspicions that are sometimes causes of distrust and even violence.

Rome Workshop on “Human Vulnerability”

Second International Bioethics, Multiculturalism and Religion Workshop and Conference on Human Vulnerability

Rome, Italy, October 9-11, 2011

With the advance of biomedicine, certain individuals and groups are vulnerable because of their incapacities to defend themselves.  Many world religions include the protection of the weak, underprivileged and the poor as part of their mission.

In light of the need to deepen our understanding of the principle of human vulnerability and personal integrity, this meeting will consist in a three-day workshop where bioethics experts from major world religions—Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Hinduism—to discuss the meaning and implications of this principle in their traditions.

History

The first series of “Bioethics, Multiculturalism and Religion” conferences was held in Jerusalem on December 13-14, 2009.  The conferences sought to foster the art of convergence and cooperation in global ethics among experts in bioethics coming from the three monotheistic religions—Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Second International Workshop and Conference on “Human Vulnerability”

Article 8 of the UNESCO Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (2005) states: “In applying and advancing scientific knowledge, medical practice and associated technologies, human vulnerability should be taken into account. Individuals and groups of special vulnerability should be protected and the personal integrity of such individuals respected.”

With the advance of biomedicine, certain individuals and groups are vulnerable because of their incapacities to defend themselves.  The International Bioethics Committee as a UNESCO working group has for the last several years dedicated to deepen this principle of human vulnerability and personal integrity. We wish to supplement this effort with a religious perspective, since a great number of the world’s population is affiliated with some religious traditions.  While we recognize the existence of diversity within each of these traditions, all of them carry in them the mission to protect the weak, the underprivileged and the poor.

This meeting will consist in a two-day workshop where bioethics experts from six major world religions—Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism—gather to discuss the meaning and implications of this principle in their respective traditions.  The third day would be an open conference for the public.

The collection of these papers will result in the publication of a book.

Methodology

Each religious group will be commissioned to write (approx. 10-page) papers that must be submitted on September 1, 2011, about a month before the workshop.

The follow papers will be commissioned:

Each of the six religious groups will write a paper addressing:

  • Anthropology of vulnerability (e.g., questions on human contingency, suffering and mortality)
  • Ethics of vulnerability (e.g., respect, compassion /mercy, charity / love)
  • Legal aspects of vulnerability (religious and civil)

Each of the six religious groups will write a paper addressing certain groups who are especially vulnerable and how they are perceived and attended to in their respective religious traditions:

  • Children before and after birth
  • Women
  • Physically and mentally handicapped
  • The elderly

The workshop will be held on October 9-11, 2011 in Rome. The language of the workshop is English.  Participants of the workshop include:

  • Experts from the six religions who have written and submitted the papers. They are expected to have read all the other papers before attending the workshop.  During each workshop session, they will give a 10 minute summary of their papers followed by an ample period of discussion, clarification, questions and critiques of these papers.
  • Academics who are interested in the topic may participate in the workshop once approved by the organizing committee (Send requests to jtham@unescobiochair.org).  They would need to have read the papers of the group in order to fruitfully engage in the discussions.  Priority is given to discussions in group a).
  • Other academics interested in the workshop who have not read the papers may also participate in the sessions, after approval by the organizing committee.  (Send requests to jtham@unescobiochair.org) They can raise questions only after the above two groups have exhausted the discussions.

It is hoped that these discussions will provide a clear and thorough understanding of each religious tradition on their understanding of vulnerability.  Their papers may also be modified based on this dialog before submission for eventual publication.  It is hoped that some common ideals and visions on vulnerability will emerge from the different religious traditions.

Organizing committee

Alberto Garcia, Director of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights

Gonzalo Miranda, LC, Fellow of the UNESCO Chair

Joseph Tham, LC, Fellow of the UNESCO Chair

Academic coordinator

Joseph Tham, LC jtham@unescobiochair.org

Advisory Board

Mustafa Abu Sway, Al Quds University, Jerusalem.

Ricardo di Segni, Chief Rabbi of Rome.

Colleen Gallagher, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston.

Christian Hervé, Université René Descartes, Paris.

Ping Cheung Lo, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong.

Henk Ten Have, Duquesne University, Pittsburg.

Stamatios Tzitzis, Université Panthéon Assas Paris II, Paris.

 

Global Art Competition’s Unveiling Ceremony

You are thoughtfully invited to

the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights

 Global Art Competition’s

 Unveiling Ceremony 

 at the United Nations Headquarters Building

1st Avenue & East 44th Street

New York, New York 10017

 October 3, 2011 

Cocktails served at six in the evening

Followed by introductory addresses

Unveiling

Acknowledgements

and Viewing

 

Eleven winning artworks,

chosen by an international panel of judges

from among hundreds of entries,

will be exhibited in the Delegate’s Entrance

preceding the General Assembly Hall.

Invitees are allowed one guest

For security reasons, your guest’s name must be provided. 

A photo ID will be required to enter. 

Click below to RSVP. Space is limited. 

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