National Workshop on Strengthening Ethical Review Committees17 Nov, 2011

The Centre of Biomedical Ethics and Culture (CBEC) of SIUT inaugurated a three day workshop entitled "National Workshop on Strengthening Ethical Review Committees" in collaboration with EMR-WHO and PMRC. In his welcome address, Professor Anwar Naqvi underlined the importance of sound ethical review of all research involving human subjects. Professor Farhat Moazam, Chairperson of CBEC welcomed the participants and described the Center’s initiatives of CBEC in areas of education and research. She said that in addition to a Postgraduate Diploma in Biomedical Ethics and a Masters in Bioethics, the Centre also organizes short courses and workshops in research and clinical ethics not only at SIUT but also nationally and in regional countries. She mentioned past academic events undertaken with the collaboration of WHO. Since CBEC has come to be recognized as a national resource in bioethics, she said that efforts are underway for CBEC to become a regional collaborative centre of WHO to play a formal role in ethics education and training for the region.

Dr Haytham Al Khayat, Senior Policy Advisor at EMRO, Cairo gave the keynote address entitled "The stance of Islam on science in general and human subject research in particular." In his talk, Dr. Al Khayat stated that medical research and practice require not only scientific but also value judgments. In Islam, the human quality of an individual cannot be considered as complete or manifest without values. One of the values emphasized in Islam is that relationships between humans must rest on a form of fraternity, be it between man and woman or a Muslim or non-Muslim. Dimensions of health care and research are becoming more complex, and he elaborated on the cardinal principles in Islam that can form the basis of helping to ensure that both are conducted in ethical fashion.

Dr Mohammad Abdur Rab, Regional Advisor, Research Policy and Cooperation at EMRO, Cairo spoke on the new guidelines for ethical review being developed by WHO. He stressed the need to develop relevant guidelines to help researchers carry our ethical research and also help ethics committee members in an appropriate review. He also praised the role of CBEC-SIUT in promoting bioethics in the country and how the centre was looked upon as a leader in the field throughout the region.