IAB President

Del 26 al 29 de junio se va a celebrar en Rotterdam el 11 Congreso Internacional de Bioética dedicado a debatir sobre Bioética para el Futuro en relación a temas clave como: Ageing and longevity, Responsibility for future generations, Enhancement, Telemedicine, Animal ethics, Longevity, Global justice, Environmental ethics, Robotics and ethics, Synthetic biology, The end of life in the future, Public health ethics, Clinical ethics, Biobanks, Nursing ethics, New emerging diseases, Neuro-ethics, Food ethics, ICT and ethics, Ethics and research, Multicultural identity and ethics, Reproductive technologies in the future, así como Bioética del Futuro en relación a: Teaching of bioethics, The role of ethicists in health care, New methods and approaches in a multidisciplinary context, Principles for the future, Ethics and policymaking.

The International Association of Bioethics (IAB) was founded twenty years ago, during an inaugural meeting in Amsterdam, in the presence of more than 300 delegates from different part of the world. Its objectives are to facilitate contacts and the exchange of information between those working in bioethics in different parts of the world; to organize and promote periodic international conferences in bioethics; to encourage the development of research and teaching in bioethics; and to uphold the value of free, open and reasoned discussion of issues in bioethics. Today, there are more than 1000 individiual and institutional members from over 40 countries.

Peter Singer, then from Monash University, Australia, served as its first president. Iberoamerica was represented in the leadership of the Association from the very beginning on: The first Board of Directors included members from Spain (Diego Grazia) and Argentina (Juan Carlos Tealdi). The second World Congress of Bioethics was held in Buenos Aires in 1994, the sixth World Congress in Brasilia, and another Latin American country might well the site of another World Congress in the near future.

Several international networks belong to the IAB. One of the oldest and most active networks is the Ibero-American Network, coordinated by Florencia Luna (Argentina), Debora Diniz (Brazil), Maria Casado (Spain) and Asunción Alvarez (Mexico). The network aims to foster a free and open public discourse - also on sensitive bioethical issues - in the region. It also lobbies for creating program slots in Spanish or Portuguese at the World Congresses, in order to encourage participation from Iberoamerican scholars who could make valuable contributions to the international discussion but prefer to do so in their native language (http://bioethics-international.org/index.php?show=networks).

The next opportunity for the international bioethics community to get together will be from 26 June to 29 June 2012 in Rotterdam, the city of the Renaissance humanist Erasmus. Some of this famous scholar's themes - social criticism and religious toleration - can still serve as an inspiration for addressing issues in bioethics today.

Shaping healthy living conditions and access to health care for all is a task that calls for the support and collaboration of many different people - theorists, practitioners, and policy-makers; experts with various sets of knowledge and skills; a broad range of stakeholders; and, in particular, committed individuals from around the globe. The IAB appreciates the input from those who are already established in the field, and it welcomes the interest of those who are new to the bioethics community.

The major bioethical challenges ahead of us are global - for addressing them we need a global forum for exchange. The International Association of Bioethics aims to be useful in this regard, and is looking forward to your contributions.

See you in Rotterdam!