Page under construction. Last update 17 May 2004.

Members:
Brendan Tobin (Responsible staff member from April 2004)
Mohammad Taeb (Responsible staff member until April 2004)
Mihaela Serbulea (UNU-JSPS fellow, November 2003-November 2005)
Darryl Macer (Affiliated Professor in Bioethics, University of Tsukuba)

Core approach:
UNU-IAS has a unique position of being an independent research institution with capacity in both the scientific and legal fields. The neutrality will be useful in bioethics debates. Utilization of experience and contacts of the affiliated professor in international bioethics debates, with the experience of UNU-IAS staff in international participatory approaches and traditional medicine.

Activities in year 2003-2004:
1) Hosting the Third and Fourth UNU Bioethics Roundtables (on 2 June 2003, and 13-16 February 2004)
2) Hiring of UNU-JSPS postdoctoral fellow in bioethics
3) Establishment of network of bioethics specialists to prepare reports from their communities and countries on global priorities in bioethics research (reports are still being received)
Previous activities included the Sixth UNU/IAS Tokyo roundtable on Bioethics Issues (13 November, 2002)

Current Projects include
1) Governance of human cloning
Preparing a report on governance options for human cloning to be presented to delegates at the UN General Assembly in 2004. The report on human cloning has a twofold purpose: to provide information to member countries about the scientific, ethical and legal issues surrounding the matter, and to influence the debate on how the science should be regulated. Report to be finished in mid-2004.

2) Global priorities in bioethics research
Establishing a network of specialists in bioethics, mainly in developing countries, and identifying global priorities in bioethics research. Goals include to identify gaps in bioethics research, policy-making needs, and find interesting case stories from different cultures. Also to support isolated researchers in developing countries and integrate them in a constructive bioethics network, expanding the network of Eubios Ethics Institute (Darryl Macer). Reports will be compiled into an open access publication in late 2004.

3) UNU input to UNESCO's proposed Declaration on Universal Norms in Bioethics
Brendan Tobin and Darryl Macer represented UNU as an Intergovermental Organization at the Extraordinary Session of UNESCO International Bioethics Committee (IBC) in Paris 27-29 April, 2004. Darryl Macer presented input from UNU on the scope and issues involved in the elaboration of the Declaration, as requested by UNESCO General Conference to be in draft form by November 2005. From now UNU will join the UN inter-agency group on bioethics, and UNESCO will invite UNU to the Third Meeting of the group from 24-25 June, 2004 in Paris. Ongoing input to the drafting of the Declaration will be made.
The work includes cooperation with other UN agencies on the UNESCO Declaration on Universal Norms in Bioethics and on other projects by UN agencies, including work by WHO on ethical issues relating to intellectual property. The fourth meeting of the group is scheduled for November 2004.

4) Integration of traditional medicine in national health care systems
Based on the realities that the majority of people in the world are relying mostly or solely on traditional methods of diagnosis and treatment, alternative medicine is getting increasingly popular in the developed countries an governments are struggling to find the best ways to deliver health care to people and on the experience from several countries which are integrating traditional medicine in national health care systems, we will conduct a series of case studies in a number of countries in various geographical areas to examine the idea whether traditional medicine is a cost effective and socially accepted complement to western medicine.
In addition, research on local systems of medicine done by national universities and research institutes in the respective countries, may increase the scientific credibility of age-old proven therapeutics. Licensing systems of traditional practitioners will enhance the authority of healers and contribute to the gap between western and traditional medicine, which persists world-over. It is ethical to offer the best possible, accessible and affordable medicine to people everywhere, in line with the UN Millennium Development Goals. This project can be linked to the UNU-IAS research areas in bioprospecting, traditional knowledge, intellectual property rights and agriculture for peace. Expected output in 2005.

When most appropriate UNU-IAS will cosponsor / sponsor further bioethics roundtables, both within Japan and internationally.