CoE BioEthical Committee Head Forus to EuroFora: Add Ethical Values on 4 Emerging Bio-Technologies

*Strasbourg/CoE/Angelo Marcopolo/- An impressive overview of almost all current World-wide High-Tech trends which may have also Vital BioEthical stakes for People's lives and for the whole Society, is currently going on at the CoE, with expected Debate and probably crucial Decision Time due  to start ticking  before the end of this year (2014) or at the beginning of 2015, the President of its PanEuropean Committee on BioEthics, Dr. Anne Forus from Norway, told "EuroFora", just after concluding another delicate issue's Conference in Strasbourg which launched a CoE's practice-oriented, advisory "Guide" regarding controversial and often dramatic dillemas about "Medical Treatment in End-of-Life situations", which needs now to start being Debated in Public, before eventually considering, later on, perhaps to draft a Legal text, or not, as many participants told us, (See Infra. NDLR : Due to the obviously sensitive character of this special issue, and given also the fact that "EuroFora" was practically hindered to be fully present at that COE's meeting on Time, this will be dealt with only briefly here, reserving for later-on a necessary thorough and serious examination in deep).
---------------------------

 + After agreeing with "EuroFora" that "BioEthics become more and more Important", almost "everywhere" in the World Today, the competent CoE's Steering Committee on BioEthics' President, replying to a Question raised by "EuroFora" about "what is the most Burinng Issue currently on the pipe-line", chose to point at the fact that "We (CoE) have just done a Study on Emerging Bio-Technologies" :

+ "And now, there is a 2nd Study going-on, in order to Identify Ethical Issues raised by the debates on such Emerging Bio-Technologies, in order to have it Analyzed in the Context of  CoE's work on BioEthics, so that "It has to be about Principles", as she stressed.

- "That work will be Finished at the End of this Year" (2014), Dr. Forus estimated.

 - In more concrete terms, "it's actually about 4 Areas : Emerging Nano-Technologies, Information Technologies,  Bio-Medical Technology, and Neuro, or rather", more widely speaking "Cognitive Science", (which include also Human Brain, but also Perception, etc), she explained.

 - In fact, "it's not only about what is happening in those Techno-Fields, but also more about what is happening when they are Merging Together", more and more frequently and deeply, Dr. Forus went on to observe, in particular.

-"Because there are some Lines which are Crossing more and more" through eachone among these areas, f. ex.. between "Information and Bio-Technologies... ", as well as "with Neuro-Sciences, etc", so that "there is a lot of issues",  etc., she added as key areas' examples.

A partly similar overview attempt had reportedly been drafted earlier also by UNESCO, UNO's body for Science and Culture, from its nearby Paris' Headquarters, as competent Top UNESCO Officials had told "EuroFora", (Comp. f. ex. : ...). But Strasbourg-based PanEuropean CoE is the only International Organisation in the World to have a crystal-clear mandate for Human Rights, Democracy and Rule of Law values.
------------------------

+  Indeed, after Identifying such New, Emerging Bio-Technologies' Developments, "now we (CoE) have to dive into the Ethics in all this", significantly added Dr. Forus.

- "And that is, I think, very Important", the President of COE's Steering Committee on BioEthics stressed.

  -In fact,  "this work has just Started", since, "the Technical Developments' Study has recently been done" (Comp. Supra), thanks also to a "Study done by a Norwegian Science and Technology Institute", Now we (CoE) must advance at a second stage.

 - In particular, "We (CoE) hope to have at least a Draft of that 2nd Study on November" 2014, and, in order to start Debating the Issues, "we could perhaps hold a (PanEuropean/International) Conference on that", probably "at the Beginning of Next Year", 2015, she specified.

=> - "After all those Studies have been done, and the (above mentioned) Conference" started to Debate the main Issues, "then, it will be up to (CoE's Member) States to Decide if we (COE's Experts Steering Committee on Bio-Ethics) should take any kind of Action on that", its Chairwoman highlighted, as far as the foreseable Horizon is concerned.

 - Since "there have been already some Technical Reports made before we started to do this fresh work,  when we shall also  have both these 2  new and wider Studies completed, as well as that possibly forthcoming Conference done", then, a serious and enlightened "Discussion would, I think, Guide us (CoE) in the Right Direction", she concluded.

=>  - However, "I thing that it's Too Early to say", already at the present Stage, what might be, or not, at the End of this process, the Head of CoE's competent Committee of Experts replied to a relevant "EuroFora"s question.

 - Simply "because we (CoE) have, at First, to Identify what Kind of Ethical Issues are at Stake" , in all that, and, when we (CoE) shall Know Better what is really at Stake, then we culd" be at a position to "Decide if and where we (CoE) should Take Action", she Highlighted carefuly.

- "It (i.e. the relevant Action to take) might (simply) be an Information Document", at least at the Beginning, but, for the rest, (f.ex. various special Draft Protocols to CoE's "Oviedo" Treaty on Bio-Medicine and Human Rights, or one Comprehensive Text, etc).

- Concerning that later Stage, "I think that it's too early to say, actually, because we don't yet know the Outcome of that 2nd Study (Comp. Supra), nor do we Know the Discussions that will be held, after that, inside the (CoE's BioEthical) Comittee, etc", Dr; Forus pointed out.

- So, "I think that we (CoE) have to have that Basis, Before we can Decide what Action we should take ", after having a Crystal-clear view on what really is the Situaton about all that, the Head of CoE's BioEthical Experts' Committee insisted, keeping a Flexible and Open stance for the Future.

Dr. Forus, who is a Norwegian Biologist focusing mainly on Cancer issues, agreed with "EuroFora" on the fact that even the World-Famous ... Science Fiction Writer, Jules Verne, who is notorious about his Love and Passion for radically New and ambitious  Scientific and Technological breakthroughs, at the same time, he was also very much interested and concerned, equaly about several Ethical Issues concerning Science, be it from Social and/or Political point of views, etc., as, f.ex., some well known Stories about the "Millions of Begum",  and/or the Mythic figure of "Captain Nemo" in several other Stories ("Under the Sea", "Mysterious Island"), etc., abundantly illustrate...
In this sense, it's naturally good that Scientists can be personally also at the Center of BioEthical and other Issues' debates, so that they can contribute to develop a really Ethical Science for the General Interest of the Society and Humankind, she agreed in substance with "EuroFora", in conclusion.

------------------------------------
+ Public Debates due to Start on CoE Experts' consultative "Guide" on the sensitive issue of "Decision-making" on "Medical Treatment in End-of-Life situations" :
---------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Forus spoke to "EuroFora" after a full-Day long PanEuroepan Conference, held earlier in Strasbourg at the "Agora" New Building of the CoE, which hosts also its Human Rights' services and is located right in front of the ECHR, (but also with a suberb View towards the Tower of EU Parliament, which often votes on Funding RST according to various, including BioEthical, Criteria, and/or on Starndard-setting Directives and other possibly relevant legal rules.

The main point of that Conference was to launch a consultative Text of CoE's Experts which might serve as a kind of "Guide" in the very Sensitive issues of "End-of-Life Situations", as far as it concerns the "Decision-making process on Medical Treatment"s Ethical Standards, (Comp. Supra).

- Experienced CoE Experts on BioEthics indicated to "EuroFora" the fact that the  most Controversial issue in similar cases, that of "Euthanasia" (alias "assisted Suicide"), was "Excluded" from the scope of that precise Text, as well as other particularly Thorny issues, while, on the contrary, it became obvious that various Controversial appreciations about the role that "Families" should, or not, be able to play as regards the Help often needed by Patients in "End-of-Life situations", (something that French professor Sicard, former Head of the Country's National BioEthical Committee since the former Government of Socialist Prime Minister Jospin, back from 1999, preferred to rather dissuade, while others, obviously, might have Different views on that Crucial practical and mainly Human issue).

+ For various such reasons, Austrian CoE's Presidency's representative, and Key-note Speaker  at Today's specialised BioEthical Conference, experienced Professor of Moral Theology, Günther Virt, from the Vienna University, stressed to "EuroFora" that in his view, thera are at least "5 Points" still, which should be "Clarified" before CoE decides to eventually prepare a Legal Text, or not, perhaps inspired, more or less, from that Draft Experts' practical "Guide" in such a sensitive matter.

 - In the meantime, as things stand now, this "Consultative" CoE Experts' "Guide", "can be Useful as a Ground for Discussions", the competent President of COE's PanEuropean Steering Committee on BioEthics, Dr. Anne Forus told "EuroFora", (after having also stressed the Need for "Public Debates" also at her Official Conclusion of Today's Conference).

=> This point of view was endorsed particularly by CoE Parliamentary Assembly's Committee for Social, Health and Natural Environment issues, mainstream ChristianDemocrat/EPP MEP from Moldova, Valeriu Ghiletchi, who revealed to "EuroFora" his intention to prepare a relevant Public Debate on the exact Content of this "Guide", after a careful examination by MEPs in the foreseable Future.
------------------------------------