1.3. At the Edge Between Law and Ethics: Modern Challenges in the Field of Latest Biomedical Technologies

Thursday, May 17
09:30 - 11:30
Hall #5, General Staff Building (6-8, Dvortsovaya sq.)

Technological development has often been a source of major advances, in particular in the biomedical field. They are opening doors to acquisition of new knowledge, development of applications for better monitoring, treatments, prevention… potential and sometimes already actual source of important improvements for human health. They may also be source of progress in other fields. However, they can also be more invasive, intrusive and provide more possibilities to intervene on human beings and control human life raising concerns about possible misuse and abuse. Such developments and the human rights challenges they raised have already impact national and European judiciaries (see the report prepared by the Secretariat of the European Court of Human Rights: https://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Research_report_bioethics_ENG.pdf).

The Convention on Human Right and Biomedicine (the Oviedo Convention), celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2017, is the only legally binding instrument for the protection of human rights in the biomedical field provides reference principles to effectively address these key new challenges for humankind.

The suggested session will provide a rare opportunity to gather leading experts in the field of biomedicine and law, for an exchange on key ethical and legal issues raised by the latest technological developments in biology and medicine with a view to identify avenue for regulation actions to prevent misuse and abuse and promote applications for the benefit of human beings.

Moderator

Laurence Lwoff

Secretary of the Committee on Bioethics, Council of Europe

Speakers

Philippe Boillat

Former Director General of the Directorate General Human Rights and Rule of Law, Council of Europe

Dmitry Dedov

Judge, European Court of Human Rights

Siobhan O Sullivan

Member Committee on Bioethics, Council of Europe

Oleg Salagay

Deputy Minister of Health of the Russian Federation

Alex Shevchenko

Head of The Critical Heart Failure Centre, National Medical Research Centre of Transplantology and Artificial Organs

* The Programme may be subject to change