We are proud to announce the first class of the Master in Global Bioethics Online got their Master's Degree

The Master in Global Bioethics Online is pleased to announce the satisfactory result of the degree of its 22 first generation students, who completed their studies in July 2021. The degree documents are being sent to our new Bioethicists. Master's degree Diplomas to 18 students from Kenya, one from the Philippines, one from Malawi, one from Uganda and one from Belize.

Anahuac University, Pioneer in Pediatric Palliative Care Training

We are among the only 5 teaching centers in palliative care (pc) in the Mexican Republic. On Tuesday, May 17, a session was convened in the Senate of the Republic, where the need to legislate Pediatric Palliative Care was expressed, and thus guarantee, in a multidisciplinary way, the active and total assistance of the body, mind and spirit focused on prevention. and relief of symptoms such as stress and pain in boys and girls.

Experts analyze the issue of euthanasia and professional identity of the doctor

On May 7, the webinar "Euthanasia and professional identity of the doctor" was held, an activity coordinated by Dr. Claudia María Casas Nader, head of the Bioethics Centers of the Anahuac University Network (RUA), and in which Dr. Mónica Osio Saldaña, palliative care specialist and student of our Master's in Bioethics, participated; Father Fernando Fabó Martín, LC, director of the Faculty of Bioethics, and Dr. Agustín Herrera Fragoso, associate researcher of said Faculty.

Issue 2 of 2022 of our Medicine and Ethics journal has been published. Download here.

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From Editorial number 2, Vol. 33 (2022)

The third article, by Rafael Cervera, brings to the table a transcendental issue to determine whether one is a person and when, at the moment of cessation of consciousness and, there-fore, when determining death in situations of encephalic damage.

The author analyzes in detail the theories that maintain that the notion of personhood is the notion that someone has of him/her-self in a continuous timeline, where a past, a present and a future are recognized, all connected by the identity of the person.

In contrast, he presents an example of a person in a state of coma, in which there is an interruption of the conscious activity of the individual in continuous time but that, not for this reason, the person ceases to be such nor ceases to exist, which calls in to question the right of a person to decide about his death under these conditions.

Now, the central point of the author’s exposition lies in affirming that what allows identity in time is neurological activity, which is reduced or totally suspended in a state of coma, but that this does not presuppose the non-existence of a first time, before the coma, and a second time, after the coma, which allows a recognition of both times before the person's recovery.

In view of this finding, which confirms that we are dealing with the same person in three different times and not with three different persons, psychological continuity, the author concludes, does not hold up as a defining argument of what a person is.

The debate on the permanence of the person is thus presented as a new door for bioethical reflection that requires serious and rigorous anthropological support.

CONBIOETHICS RESOURCES: April Catalog 2022

List of our agreements

John James R. Rayel

What I am doing as a Bioethicist that I would like to share?

1. How have your studies in bioethics complemented your professional and personal life?

Studies in Bioethics have helped me a lot in my personal life, this is the reason why I am very excited and motivated to establish a Center for Bioethics in the Philippines. Professionally, it helps me a lot despite the challenges of society. The fight against challenges is part of being human, we could not achieve all our goals without them. Despite everything, I am optimistic that my project will be achieved and established; It takes a lot of courage and wisdom to start from scratch.

2. Are you currently working on a project related to bioethics?

Yes! Today, as the founder of St. Jean Baptiste Marie Vianney Family Inc., I began to establish the Philippine Catholic Center for Bioethics, the first of its kind in the Philippines and in Asia, knowing that Asia has no such Center for Bioethics.

3. Have you given a presentation or conference in relation to bioethical issues?

I had the opportunity to participate as a speaker before the COVID-19 pandemic, at "The Sisters of Mary School Boystown", where I am also a graduate.

4. Do you have any publication in bioethics/ethics?

None! It is one of our projects once the Philippine Catholic Center for Bioethics is well established. But as far as I know, our group, the First Class of the Master in Global Bioethics, is preparing a book that is in process and I collaborated by sending an article. I am hopeful that the book will be published this year, 2022.

I also plan to publish the first Philippine Compendium of Bioethics for Biolaw which inspired me a lot during our Biolaw course with Dr. Alberto Gómez García, as a brilliant and very encouraging teacher.

5. Do you belong or are you a member of any association/committee related to bioethics/ethics?

Currently, the Philippines does not have a Bioethics Association, maybe once the Center is established, we plan to lead such an Association or committee, so that Philippine’s can be aware and know, "What does bioethics mean?" I always share the video we have at the Anahuac University, "What does bioethics mean to you?" so that every person I meet or every lecture I give, especially the young people of our future generation, are aware of Bioethics.

6. Do you recommend the postgraduate program you were part of? What was your experience?

Yes! I have been encouraging my good friends and others who are inspired by my studies, as there is a great need for Bioethics in the country.

Great! I miss the Global Bioethics program, its great and brilliant professors in their different areas of specialization, and my classmates.

In fact, I communicate continuously with some of my colleagues and have invited them to collaborate in the establishment of the Center for Bioethics. I have learned many things, which inspired me to create this project, so that there is continuity through a global collaboration with them. I am praying and hoping that this effort becomes a reality with the great help of Almighty God and the Blessed Virgin Mother, as well as people of good will who somehow become an instrument of this great effort. I know that God has given me a great purpose for my country, and the needs of it, especially in government where there are many dilemmas and bioethical problems.

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