Forum on the Future of Irish Bioethics
The Royal Irish Academy’s Life and Health Sciences committee recently hosted a Forum on the Future of Irish Bioethics to critically examine bioethical frameworks in Ireland.
Bioethics is an interdisciplinary field that examines and responds to the various ethical, social, and legal issues arising in the life and health sciences, medicine, and biotechnology. Ireland has recently undergone several bioethically significant challenges, such as responding to COVID-19 and the abortion referendum, while other bioethical issues are on-going, such as new advances in genomics, developing regulation in assisted reproduction, assisted dying, and more.
Held on Wednesday 30 October 2024, the Forum on the Future of Irish Bioethics brought together a range of stakeholders to address the question: would Ireland benefit from having a national bioethics body and what would this body look like?
The forum was opened by RIA Senior Vice-President, Imelda Maher, and was structured around two panel discussions. The first panel looked at the work that has been done by various bodies against the backdrop of the disbandment of the Irish Council for Bioethics (ICB) in 2010 and the long-term inactivity of the National Advisory Committee on Bioethics (NACB). The panellists were:
- Aisling MacMahon, Professor of Law, Maynooth University
- Heike Felzmann, Senior Lecturer in philosophy/ethics in the School of History and Philosophy, University of Galway
- Derick Mitchell, CEO Irish Platform for Patients’ Organisations, Science & Industry (IPPOSI)
The second panel of the day considered various models for addressing bioethical concerns at national and international level. The discussion addressed the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches and built on the earlier panel to come up with some suggestions for what kind of approach is needed in Ireland. The panellists were:
- 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
- Thérèse Murphy, Professor, School of Law, Queens University Belfast
This was a highly discursive event, expertly moderated by Dr Shane Bergin from UCD. Participants included medical professionals, policy makers, academics and researchers, patient advocates, and representatives from the health services and the National Office for Research Ethics Committees, who all contributed to a dynamic discussion that highlighted some of the major bioethical issues facing our society and put forward possible solutions and approaches to addressing these at various levels.
Dr Oliver Feeney, chair of the working group that organised the event, said:
‘It was fantastic to hear the perspectives of such a wide range of experts and stakeholders at this event. A lot of important issues were raised and it is clear that bioethics is something that needs to be addressed at a national scale. I’m delighted that we were able to contribute to the discourse and we look forward to publishing the key takeaways from the event. I wish to acknowledge the input of the following working group members who contributed to the success of the event: Jane Farrar, Deirdre Madden, Joe McDonagh, Derick Mitchell, Keelin O’Donoghue, Dónal Ó Mathúna, David Smith, and our Programme Manager Fionnuala Parfrey.’
