WMA European Region Meeting on End-of-Life Questions

Thursday, 16 November 2017

Welcome

WMA: Dr Yoshitake Yokokura, President, World Medical Association (Japan)

GMA: Prof. Dr Frank Ulrich Montgomery, President, German Medical Association (Germany)

Message Pope Francis delivered by Cardinal Turkson, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development

PAV: Archbishop Msgr. Vincenzo Paglia, President, Pontifical Academy for Life (Vatican)

I. Setting the stage: Three perspectives on end-of-life questions

Speaker 1: Prof. Dr Frank Ulrich Montgomery, President, German Medical Association (Germany)

Speaker 2: Dr René Héman, Chairman, Royal Dutch Medical Association (Netherlands)

Speaker 3: Dr Yvonne Gilli, Board Member, Swiss Medical Association (Switzerland)

Immediate questions (to be continued in plenary panel discussion on Friday in session VIII)

II. Theological approaches

Speaker 1: Prof. Marie-Jo Thiel, Director, European Centre for Teaching and Research in Ethics, and Professor of Ethics and Moral Theology, University of Strasbourg (France)

Speaker 2: Dr Riccardo Di Segni, Rabbino Capo, Comunità Ebraica di Roma (Italy)

Speaker 3: Prof. Dr Ilhan Ilkilic, professor and chair of the Department of History of Medicine and Ethics, Istanbul University Faculty of Medicine (Turkey)

Speaker 4: Dr Daniela Mosoiu, Director for Education and National Development, Hospice “Casa Sperantei” (Romania)

Discussion

III. Delineating euthanasia and PAS in the systems of Common and Roman Law

Speaker 1: Prof. John Keown, Professor of Christian Ethics, Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University (US)

Speaker 2: Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Volker Lipp, Professor of Civil Law, Civil Procedure, Medical Law and Comparative Law, Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen; Member of GMA’s Central Ethics Committee (Germany)

Discussion

IV. Guide on the decision-making process regarding medical treatment in end-of-life situations

Speaker 1: Dr Laurence Lwoff, Head of Bioethics Unit, Human Rights Directorate, Council of Europe (France)

V. Compassionate use and conscientious objection

Speaker 1: Prof. Dr Leonid Eidelman, President, Israeli Medical Association (Israel)

Speaker 2: Prof. Chris Gastmans, Professor of Medical Ethics, University of Leuven (Belgium)

Speaker 3: Prof. Pablo Requena, MD, STD, Professor of Moral Theology, Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Delegate of the Vatican Medical Association to the WMA (Vatican)

Discussion

Welcome and recap of first day

Speaker: Dr Otmar Kloiber, Secretary General, World Medical Association

VI. Is there a right to determine one’s own death?

Speaker 1: Prof. Dr Urban Wiesing, Institute for Ethics and History of Medicine, University of Tuebingen (Germany)

Speaker 2: Prof. Dr Christiane Druml, Chairperson of the Austrian Bioethics Commission and UNESCO Chair of Bioethics at the Medical University of Vienna (Austria)

Speaker 3: Prof. Dr Stephan Sahm, Director Medical Clinic I, Ketteler Hospital, Offenbach, Professor, Institute for History and Ethics in Medicine, Frankfurt University (Germany)

Immediate questions (to be continued in plenary panel discussion in the afternoon in session VIII)

VII. Treatment limitations vs. euthanasia. End stage decisions about medication, feeding and terminal sedation

Speaker 1: Dr Anne de la Tour, President of the French Society of Palliative Care, Argenteuil (France)

Speaker 2: Dr Gunnar Eckerdal, Dept. of Oncology, Sahlgrenska University Hospital (Sweden)

Discussion

VIII. Dealing with public and published opinions

Speaker 1: Dr Marco Greco, President, European Patients’ Forum (Belgium)

Speaker 2: Dr Heikki Pälve, Past CEO, Finnish Medical Association (Finland)

Speaker 3: Prof. Ralf J. Jox, Institute for Ethics, History and Theory of Medicine, University of Munich (Germany); Geriatric Palliative Care, University Hospital Lausanne (Switzerland)

Speaker 4: Baroness Ilora Finlay, Professor of Palliative Medicine, Cardiff University; Crossbench Peer, House of Lords (UK)

Discussion

IX. Is there a need to change policy? Plenary panel discussion

Panelist 1: Dr Yvonne Gilli, Board Member, Swiss Medical Association (Switzerland)

Panelist 2: Dr Matilde Leonardi, Scientific Director, Coma Research Centre, Istituto Neurologico Carlo Best, Milan (Italy)

Panelist 3: Prof. Dr Urban Wiesing, Institute for Ethics and History of Medicine, University of Tuebingen (Germany)

Panelist 4: Prof. Dr Stephan Sahm, Director Medical Clinic I, Ketteler Hospital, Offenbach, Professor, Institute for History and Ethics in Medicine, Frankfurt University (Germany)

Panelist 5: Dr René Héman, Chairman, Royal Dutch Medical Association (Netherlands) Panelist 6: Prof. Dr Frank Ulrich Montgomery, President, German Medical Association (Germany)

Closing remarks

Speaker: Archbishop Msgr. Vincenzo Paglia, President, Pontifical Academy for Life (Vatican)