20170321-Desai-Opening-Speech-Limassol

UNESCO Chair in Bioethics 12th World Conference
St. Raphael Hotel Resort & Congress Center
Limassol, Cyprus
March 21-23, 2017
Ketan Desai*
President
World Medical Association
Address at the Conference Opening
*
Prof. Dr. Ketan Desai
President
World Medical Association
e-mail: secretariat@wma.net
Ketan Desai, WMA page 2
UNESCO Chair in Bioethics 12th World Conference
St. Raphael Hotel Resort & Congress Center
Limassol, Cyprus
March 21-23, 2017
Ketan Desai
President
World Medical Association
Address at the Conference Opening
Good morning,
Professor Carmi, President of the Conference;
Honorable Mr. Nikolaides, Mayor of Limassol;
Dr. Lachapellle, representative of the International Federation of Medical Students
Associations;
Dr. Demetriadou, representative of the Cyprus Tourism Organization
Dr. Economou, President of the Deontology Committee of Cyprus
Professor Halevy, Director General, Shaare Zedek Medical Center.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Colleagues,
My name is Ketan Desai, I am the President of the World Medical Association.
It is my pleasure and honour to welcome you here in Limassol on behalf of the World
Medical Association. It is now for the fourth time that the WMA not only supports this
conference, but also takes a very active role in it.
In the past three conferences, two of which have taken place in Naples Italy and Jerusalem,
respectively, the World Medical Association joined with own presentations and topics. We
have been participating at sessions on research ethics, the treatment of hunger strikers,
databases and bio banks, and end-of-life prepositions.
Most of you probably are aware that the World Medical Association is the global umbrella
organization for currently 111 medical associations from around the world. Since its
inception in 1947 the World Medical Association comprises the global platform for the
development of the medical deontology.
But living in a real world we are also dealing with questions of the social environment of
medicine and healthcare. In the previous years, you have heard from my predecessor Sir
Michael Marmot about our engagement for the Social Determinants of Health. For us this is
of course more than a social question. This engagement is also an unending ethical quest for
equity in our societies and healthcare.
Ketan Desai, WMA page 3
Very early, one year after its inauguration, in 1948 the WMA published a new physician oath,
the “Declaration of Geneva”. Again, one year later the oath was complimented by the first
International Code of Medical Ethics. Both policies are still the core part of our deontological
apparatus which currently consists of 154 declarations, statements and resolutions of
consequence and relevance alike.
Some of those policies have become cornerstone documents for the regulation of the
medical profession. Aside from the Declaration of Geneva, which is sometimes called the
“Modern Hippocratic Oath”, and the “International Code of Medical Ethics”, the Declaration
of Helsinki became the probably best known document of the World Medical Association.
But other papers like the “Declaration of Tokyo” on the non-involvement of physicians in
torture or other inhumane or degrading treatment have become triggering stimulus for
policy development on the national, regional and even on the United Nations level.
In our efforts to counter-act the growing violence against health care personnel and facilities
we have joined the “Health Care in Danger Campaign” of the International Committee of the
Red Cross in 2011. Two years ago, we have renewed the “Ethical principles of healthcare in
times of armed conflict and other emergencies”. I say “renewed” because strictly speaking
the policy is a remake of a paper we adopted in 1956 together with the International
Committee of the Red Cross and the International Committee of Military Medicine. This time
we were also joined by the International Council of Nurses and the International
Pharmaceutical Federation. Taken forward by the International Committee of the Red Cross
and with the help of some nations the United Nations Security Council last May finally
adopted resolution 2286 “to promote and ensure respect for the principles and rules of
international humanitarian law” which is a benchmark of its own type.
The Declaration of Helsinki, the “Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human
Subjects” and its revision have been discussed several times in this conference series. When
we finally came up with a new version in 2013, we also understood that a number of
questions posed by the increasing amount of research that is already been done using health
database and biobank were still unanswered. How should we insure informed consent,
when the same data or material is used for multiple studies over a long time? How to
protect persons against stigma and undesired outcomes? How to ensure privacy and dignity
in a more and more net-worked world, which is ever expanding in an open ended manner.
Over the past years we have taken advantage of this forum the UNESCO Chair of Bioethics
Conference to get input from ethicists, researchers, jurists and physicians to build a new
policy. Today we are proud to discuss with you all the result of this work: the “Declaration of
Taipei on Health Databases and Biobanks”.
The World Medical Association also invites you to participate in our discussion about the
oldest of our core policies, the Declaration of Geneva, the Physician Oath. Seven decades
after its creation, we discuss its revision in a structured two year process. And with that
revision interesting, but also challenging questions are coming up: Do we still have the same
value-set as we had 70 years ago? Are the values and principles still addressed properly in
this Declaration? Do we still need such an oath and if yes, should it be the same, across the
world in a universalistic sense?
Ketan Desai, WMA page 4
A second far more contentious core policy of the World Medical Association is also under
discussion: Up to now the majority of medical associations in the World Medical Association
rejected the idea of physician participation in suicide and euthanasia. This position has been
challenged by two of our members. The WMA decided to reopen the debate on end-of-life
questions and with that, especially physician assisted suicide and euthanasia.
The discussion has been dominated on both sides of the arguments by mainly European and
North American voices. To give it a more global perspective the WMA decided to initiate
regional debates about those questions. A first regional conference took place last week in
Rio de Janeiro organized by our Latin American colleagues on initiative of the Brazilian
Medical Association. The second one will be held in August organized by the Indian Medical
Association for the Asian Pacific region and a third conference is currently being organized
under the leadership of the German and the Vatican Medical Association to be held at the
Vatican this November. We are hopeful to get at least a fourth conference initiated on the
African continent, as well.
For the World Medical Association, it is imperative to be truly global in the larger interest of
men, mankind and the profession. And to that extent the UNESCO Chair of Bioethics
Conference offers a great forum for a truly meaningful and purposive international debates.
I would like to express our appreciation for UNESCO to support this conference series. We
thank the support of the local organizers being again wonderful hosts here in Cyprus.
Professor Carmi, we owe you our gratitude for your engagement and work to make this
conference possible and to bring together this huge and important group of ethicists,
researchers, jurists and physicians to debate, discuss, deliberate and to evolve consensus on
vital issues that are bound to impact the human race and the ethical cause in more than one
way.
I wish this conference excellent presentations, interesting debates, and meaningful
outcomes.
Thank you for the patient listening, enjoy the conference to its hilt!