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• Katharina Mader

2003 Spring Conference:
10.–12.4.2003, Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler

The 2003 Spring Conference was centred on bioethical problems of globalisation, whereby methodological questions as well as practical problems were discussed. The scientific conference began with the topic “Bioethics as a Science and its Application in Politics” and included a debate on the difficulties involved in providing advisory services for political decision-makers in the field of bioethics. In the view of Udo Schüklenk, Johannesburg, bioethical research is being increasingly hampered by special interest groups, such as the pharmaceutical industry. Schüklenks’ suspicion regarding a structurally inherent vulnerability to corruption on the part of bioethical research was vehemently disputed by many participants in the discussion, among others, and also by the talk given by Edgar Morscher, Salzburg. With regard to the question of whether basic bioethical principles (such as the principle of “informed consent”) could claim culturally invariant validity, Oswald Schwemmer, the cultural philosopher from Berlin, expressed scepticism since, in his view, the validity of moral convictions was only possible against the background of common, historical experience. Representatives of developing countries insisted, first and foremost, upon the universal validity of human rights; on the other hand, they also pointed out the right to cultural identity in the assessment of options for action in the medical field. The discussion showed that, on the question of the cross-cultural validity of basic rules in bioethics and thus, for example, the possibility of global conventions, there still exists a considerable need for clarification.

Professor Carmel Shalev, Tel Aviv, Dr. Georg Marckmann, Tübingen, Nathan Ford, London, and Dr. Richard Ashcroft, London, led a discussion on the subject of “The Provision of Medicines in Developing Countries”. For one thing, medicines protected by patents are frequently unaffordable for the people living in these countries. For another thing, there are diseases from which primarily these very people suffer, but they have insufficient money available to support the demand and cover the costs for the development of the needed medicine. Apart from the problems involved in providing these medicines at acceptable prices, or indeed in developing them at all, the issue was addressed as to which actors should be held responsible (states, pharmaceutical enterprises) for eliminating these deficiencies.

The speakers were: Dr. Richard E. Ashcroft (Imperial College, London), Professor Dr. Abdallah S. Daar (University of Toronto), Nathan Ford (Médecins Sans Frontières, London), Professor Dr. Michiel Korthals (Wageningen University and Research Centre), Dr. Georg Marckmann (Universität Tübingen), Professor Dr. Edgar Morscher (Universität Salzburg), Dr. Bronwyn Parry (King's College, Cambridge), Professor Dr. Udo Schüklenk (University of the Witwatersrand), Professor Dr. Oswald Schwemmer (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Dr. Carmel Shalev (Gertner Institute, Tel Hashomer), Professor Dr. Dr. h. c. Joseph Straus (Max Planck-Institut für Geistiges Eigentum, Wettbewerbs-und Steuerrecht, München), Professor Dr. Godfrey B. Tangwa (University of Yaounde).