The Royal Irish Academy’s Life and Health Sciences committee chaired by Dr Oliver Feeney recently organised a “Forum on the Future of Irish Bioethics” event which took place at the Royal Irish Academy on 30th November. This event was opened by Royal Irish Academy, Senior Vice-President, Professor Imelda Maher (UCD). It brought together a range of stakeholders to consider the current bioethical issues we face nationally/internationally, whether Ireland would benefit from having a national bioethics body and what would this body look like? The event featured two panel discussions moderated by Dr Shane Bergin (UCD).
Aisling McMahon (Professor of Law, School of Law and Criminology) was invited to speak on the first panel at the event, alongside other panellists Heike Felzmann, Senior Lecturer (School of History and Philosophy, University of Galway); and Derick Mitchell, CEO Irish Platform for Patients’ Organisations, Science & Industry (IPPOSI). This panel considered a range of issues including the current bioethical challenges we are facing in Ireland or may face in future, and how such issues are considered.
The second panel looked at various national/international approaches for the consideration of bioethical issues, and featured the following panel speakers: Siobhán O’Sullivan, Executive Director of Royal Irish Academy and former Chief Bioethics Officer in the Department of Health; Sarah Cunningham-Burley, Chair Nuffield Council on Bioethics; Órla O’Donovan, Senior Lecturer, School of Applied Social Studies, University College Cork; and Thérèse Murphy, Professor, School of Law, Queens University Belfast.
You can read more about this event here.