Bulletin No. 2, 2014

Scientists, Muses and their Labs  19  Centre for Bioethics Interim Director : Prof. T.F. Fok ‘ The universal principle behind bioethics is respect for persons, defined broadly. Hong Kong’s two medical schools have always taught ethics education, but it was not offered systematically. Many staff are doing research on ethics, but we haven’t been able to integrate their work. The centre brings together ethics education and research. It serves as a platform for the Faculty of Medicine, for other disciplines, and for interested parties outside the University to work toward a common goal.’ The bold new world of biotechnology has created profound and challenging ethical, legal, and social issues for educators, researchers, healthcare workers, policy makers and the public. To rise to these challenges, the University established Hong Kong’s first interdisciplinary centre for bioethics. The Centre for Bioethics, which will be formally launched in January 2015, will work with one of the world’s leading institutes for bioethics, the Hastings Center, as well as the Centre for Biomedical Ethics at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore, to establish best practice in mission development, educational approaches, and recruitment. One of the centre’s core aims is to raise awareness of biomedical ethics in Hong Kong, and not just within the medical field. The centre is hiring a teaching team of scholars and researchers from a variety of disciplines working on bioethics, such as philosophy, sociology, anthropology, psychology, media studies and life science. The target students are not limited to the Faculty of Medicine, as part of the course will be included in University General Education which is open to all undergraduate students.