Issue No. 609
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24 - 30 October 2002 Issue No. 609 Home news |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
The responsibility of creativity
Can we give free reign to the human scientific imagination? Fatemah Farag listened in on the Bibliotheca Alexandrina's first post inauguration international conference
A technological revolution is taking over the globe. From ICT (Information Communications Technology) to life sciences, modern technology is creating options that not only offer humanity a range of choices never before available, but also test conventional biological and conceptual perceptions. As science pushes ahead with cloning, stem cell research and genetically modified agriculture, societies are left lagging behind, grappling with issues of ethics and moral responsibility.
What rights do foetuses have in stem cell research? Who is a parent? What constitutes affordable health care under global patenting laws? These are difficult questions that still require answers.
"Our new capacities pose new and profound ethical and safety issues. Unlike the past, the new issues of property science will also complicate our future... While many applaud our scientific prowess, they fear our headlong rush into an unknown future and question whether we have the wisdom to deploy the new technologies responsibly," explained the concept paper of Ethical and Social Responsibilities in Science and Technology, an international conference organised by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina between 19 and 21 October.
The conference is the first international event to take place after the formal inauguration of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina on 16 October. It is a choice that reflects the mandate the new library has vowed to uphold, namely the tradition of multi-disciplinary dialogue. In the words of Mrs Suzanne Mubarak: "In our celebrations [of the inauguration of the library], art and culture have been most prominent, but we insured that the first major conference we hold should be devoted to science and that it should specifically address the ethics of science and technology [both of which] will remain a focus of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in the years ahead. In a sense, that theme represents the holistic vision of an institution that refuses to compartmentalise human knowledge and experience."
It is a choice that also reflects the interests of the library's director, Ismail Serrageddin (it is noteworthy that the first international event held by the library was on the relationship between biotechnology and sustainable development). A strong believer in the promise of science to make the new century one free of hunger and absolute poverty, Serrageddin noted that: "On the positive side, we all know that science can indeed help to feed the hungry, heal the sick, protect the environment, provide dignity in work and create space for the joy of self-expression. Yet, on the negative side, it is the ability to master science and new technologies that may increase the gaps and accentuate the divide. Unless we act in a concerted and decisive fashion, the trends do not augur well: Today, on an average per capita basis, rich countries have about 40 times the income levels of the poor, but they invest 220 times as much in research. It is institutions in industrialised countries that file and hold the patents of the new gateway technologies."
The conference drew Moufid Shehab, Minister of Higher Education, Frederico Mayor, ex-head of UNESCO and currently head of the Ramon Areces Foundation, Jean-Pierre Alix, secretary-general of the Universal Movement for Scientific Responsibility (MURS), Jean Dausset, Nobel laureate and honourary president of MURS, Gerard Megie, president of CNRS, Jens Fenstad of the department of mathematics at the University of Oslo, Norway and many others covering fields of knowledge and specialisation ranging from water management to psychiatry and including philosophy, medicine and forestry.
For three days this group tackled human health issues, reproduction issues (cloning to surrogate motherhood), food safety (in particular genetically-modified plants), and the nature of contemporary agro-ecology, the biosphere (climate change, energy, etc), the revolution in ICT (and how these can empower the poor) and finally public education and patenting. The link between poverty and the morality of science was also highlighted. In the area of health services it was recognised that "ethical values are changing with globalisation: 10 per cent of the [world] population consume 90 per cent of health services."
The conference covered a myriad of topics: The moral responsibilities of doctors to their patients, whether embryos are individuals or merely scientific tools? Who is responsible for the human body during life and after death? Population growth and the depletion of the world's natural resources. However, the goal, as Mubarak pointed out, is fairly simple: "[A] broad ethical framework... to seek equity and fairness, to promote applications of knowledge that will promote well-being now and in the future, to include the excluded, reach the unreached and think of the unborn as we take actions today."
Additional reporting by Reem Nafie
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