Bioethics Forum

Vision
Defending the Dignity of the Human Person in Healthcare and Life Sciences

Mission
A consultative forum that engages with moral questions arising in clinical practice, biomedical research and public policy on healthcare issues through a person centred bioethical approach. The forum engages in scholarly dialogue with healthcare workers, bioethicists, lawyers and theologians; and seeks to develop the implications of the teachings of the Catholic Church for emerging fields of medical practice and public policy. Moreover, the forum will develop and design educational programmes for healthcare workers including clinicians and nurses; offering consultation to Catholic pastors, healthcare professionals and others interested in healthcare ethics.

Rationale
The area of Bioethics is fraught with numerous controversies and confusing definitions even amongst Christian theologians; therefore, the need for clarity and definition of the underlying moral distinctions. Since, India is rapidly becoming a centre for advances in medical technology and clinical research this need has assumed an urgency. During the course of preparing the Ethical and Healthcare Directives for the Office of Health; we encountered numerous doubts at a workshop for Catholic Doctors and Bioethicists. (Pre Congress Workshop of the World Bioethics Congress, Organised by the Bioethics Forum, Bangalore and Sponsored by the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development),

A Catholic Bioethics Forum located at St. John’s Medical College can be a national consultative forum for the Episcopal Conference, available to the premier Catholic Medical College in India, to educate Catholic Bioethical principles and teaching and to run seminars, lectures and consultations, and write articles with a view of creating within the public square and in Catholic Medical Institutions, a space for an authentic dissemination of a bioethical approach that seeks to develop the implications of Catholic teaching for emerging fields of medical practice.

Activities of the Bioethics Forum

Engaging with Catholic health professionals, theologians, environmentalists, lawyers, NGOs and experts from public health, science and technology to discuss and disseminate Catholic Bioethical Teaching.
Assisting Catholic healthcare institutions in developing institutional policy on areas related to bioethics.
Conducting seminars and talks on new and emerging possibilities in healthcare and human life like organ transplantation, surrogacy, infertility, same-sex parents, sexual orientation, genetic testing, genetic editing (CRISPR).
Developing papers on topics of concern in bioethics to disseminate knowledge about contentious issues and share views from the Catholic Church.
Offer consultation to individuals, groups and institutions on concerns related to bioethics
At a later date, offer training sessions in seminaries, formation houses, pastoral groups, schools and health institutions in bioethics.

Historical Introduction

The CCBI Office Bearers meetings held on 20 November, 2019, Patna and on13 February, 2020, Bangalore discussed the possibility of the establishing the Bioethics Forum under the CCBI Commission for Theology and Doctrine. The Deputy Secretary General of the CCBI Rev. Dr. Stephen Alathara presented the proposal to the CCBI Office Bearers. The CCBI Office Bearers: Most Rev. Filipe Neri Ferrão, the President and the Archbishop of Goa and Daman; Most Rev. George Antonysamy, the Vice President and the Archbishop of Madras-Mylapore and Most Rev. Anil Joseph Thomas Couto, the Secretary General were agreed with the proposal. It was decided to establish under the CCBI Commission for Theology and Doctrine.

The agenda to establish the Bioethics Forum was scheduled to discuss in the 85th Executive Committee meeting to be held on1st May 2020 but the meeting was cancelled due to prevailing Covid-19 pandemic. Again the CCBI Office Bearers meeting held on 9 July, 2021 decided to discuss this agenda point in the 87 Executive Committee meeting scheduled to take place on 20 and 21 September, 2021.

Meanwhile the CCBI Bioethics Forum came up with a document named “A Catholic Ethical Response to Questions about Covid-19 Vaccines”, which was internationally appreciated. It was prepared under the guidance of Rev. Dr. Christopher Vimalraj Hiruthya adjunct professor of Bioethics at the Division of Health and Humanities, St. John’s Research Institute and a priest from the Archdiocese of Bangalore.

The members of the 87 Executive Committee meeting of the CCBI held on 20 and 21 September, 2021 established the CCBI Bioethics Forum under the aggies of the CCBI Commission for Theology and Doctrine. Rev. Dr. Christopher Vimalraj Hiruthya from the Archdiocese of Bangalore was appointed as the first Director of the CCBI Bioethics Forum.