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Developments in life-sciences, medicine and biotechnology have led to new ways of treating, preventing and even curing human diseases. These rapid advancements have raised some complex ethical and safety issues that require us to reexamine our traditional moral views. Matters are additionally complicated by the moral dilemmas which characterize some recent developments: cloning, reproductive technologies, regenerative medicine, and gene therapy, among others.

As the impact of these advancements on individuals, communities, and societies grows, so too does the importance of bioethics, a field which emerged about fifty years ago. Through both a theoretical and a practical endeavor, Bioethics allows us to discuss and understand our deep moral concerns, fears and hopes regarding the impact of medical sciences and biotechnological advancements on our lives.

Global Bioethics Initiative (GBI) is a 501(c)(3) international, non-profit organization co-founded in 2011 by Ana Lita, Ph.D. and Charles Debrovner, M.D. GBI is dedicated to fostering public awareness and understanding of bioethical issues, and to exploring solutions to bioethical challenges. Through its events and activities, GBI seeks to keep the international community, policy decision-makers, the media, and the general public informed and aware of important bioethical issues. Such awareness is essential for making informed decisions and fostering public debate. It is through such debate that old practices and beliefs are challenged, and new social norms are formed. Using various platforms, we at GBI are able to promote our motto “Doing bioethics in real life!”

GBI is associated with the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI), since December 2014. DPI aims at facilitating the exchange of information and the development of partnerships within the UN as well as with nonprofit organizations around the world. Many of the issues addressed by GBI, including reproductive rights, human organ trafficking, and the ethics of population aging, are important to other UN and UN-affiliated agencies.

GBI is also a member of the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI), a global initiative that aligns institutions of higher education with the United Nations in furthering the realization of the purposes and mandate of the Organization through activities and research in shared culture of intellectual social responsibility.

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations nominated Global Bioethics Initiative for special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, the UN’s central platform for debate, reflection, and innovative thinking on sustainable development. GBI is one of only a few organizations to receive such a status. In this capacity, GBI will be able to offer policy recommendations directly to those who craft and initiate legislation and participate in intergovernmental meetings of the UN.

Mission

Global Bioethics Initiative (GBI) is dedicated to fostering public awareness and understanding of bioethical issues, and to exploring solutions to bioethical challenges.

Goals

GBI has established four goals to achieve its mission:

  • To promote interdisciplinary research and provide the public with information pertaining to bioethical issues
  • To engage a broader audience in public debates on emerging technologies and their potential impact
  • To collaborate with policy makers, including those at the United Nations (UN) and its agencies to identify solutions to global health problems
  • To encourage international debates at the intersection of health, biotechnology and medicine

                                                                                     Focus issues

1. Human organ transplantation and trafficking

One of the most beneficial achievements of modern medicine is organ transplantation, which saves lives and returns individuals with debilitating illnesses back to having productive and fulfilling lives. Organ retrieval and transplants have raised many ethical issues, and since the first kidney transplant in 1954, a growing shortage of organs has led to a daily death of 16-18 patients in the United States alone. Efforts to encourage organ procurement from cadaveric donors, along with extended acceptability of living donations, have not increased the supply of organs nearly enough to satisfy the growing demand worldwide. GBI’s Organ Transplantation and Trafficking project addresses the ethical issues generated by recent and ongoing advances in organ transplantation, the problem of organ supply versus organ demand, procurement policies, global organ trafficking and some possible solutions to organ shortage.

2. Ethical issues surrounding End-of-Life 

The ever increasing pace of biotechnological progress calls for a shift in how we think about aging. Public debates over whether the “right to die” is universal, only applies under certain circumstances (such as terminal illness), or exists at all, challenges the work of End-of-Life advocates trying to determine the elements of so-called “good death.” GBI’s End of Life care program provides the public with information and opportunities to discuss the ethical issues related to both “life extension” and the “right to die” debates.

3. Ethical issues related to Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART)

While some policy makers argue over the availability of birth control – a relatively old practice  – advances in reproductive science have moved far beyond in-vitro fertilization (IVF), and the advancement of new technologies (egg and sperm donation, sex selection, surrogate births, pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, among them) raise new and important ethical questions to be addressed. ART have helped millions of infertile couples and individuals who have decided to have children. However, the expansion of this technology globally has generated numerous social, ethical, and legal questions and challenges. GBI’s Assisted Reproductive Technologies project addresses the most visible and challenging aspects of ART.

4. Regenerative medicine and healthy aging

Questions of age and aging are rapidly shifting to the center of the public attention, as well as academic discourses, given the recent developments in stem cell therapies. However, the theoretical and methodological premises of understanding and conceptualizing the emerging field of stem cell research are often less than clear. The dominant perspective in many Western countries is based on the understanding of age(ing) and age-related diseases in terms of physical, mental decline and pathology. The GBI project on regenerative medicine and healthy aging calls for ethical analysis of contemporary biomedical research and discussion of current developments in biotechnology and the biology of aging.

 Values

Justice — A just approach to healthcare must attend to certain basic human needs, and particular attention must be paid to meeting the needs of the least advantaged.
Transparency — GBI is characterized by accessibility of information provided and knowledge input to policy formulation and implementation (when that is possible), within a well-established ethical framework.
Collaboration — GBI uses mutually beneficial ways to cooperate with nonprofit organizations, corporations, individuals, governments, the Permanent Missions to the UN, and UN agencies.
Compassion — GBI is dedicated to the long-term development of strategies and programs to help alleviate suffering and prevent premature death of disadvantaged populations.
Flexibility — GBI is responsive to a dynamic and perpetually changing environment.

Activities

  • GBI organizes periodic focus groups, workshops, panel discussions, and conferences to facilitate public understanding of current bioethical issues impacting us all. For information about events click here.
  • GBI leverages the knowledge and experience of experts and other professionals in government, academia, and private industry, as well as its Board and Advisory Board members.

Location

With offices at 777 UN Plaza, 5th Floor, New York, New York, 10017, GBI overlooks the United Nations headquarters in New York City.

Collaborations

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