The UVic-UCC Bioethics Congress lays the foundations for creating a Spanish joint working network

Last Thursday and Friday, about 120 people took part in the first International Bioethics Congress organised by the University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC) under the auspices of the Grífols Foundation Bioethics Chair. The event, which took place in the Aula Magna, brought together lecturers and researchers from Spanish universities studying health sciences, philosophy and law, and members of professional colleges, members of scientific societies, ethics committees and bioethics associations. Based on a programme of lectures and round table discussions, as well as various sections of communications, the Congress aims to inspire and encourage innovative teaching methods and research projects, in both the academic sphere and in clinical practice.

On Wednesday evening, 23 bioethics experts from universities all over Spain met at a pre-congress seminar. The work session laid the foundations for establishing a Spanish joint working network in the field of education and research in bioethics. The debate led to the definition of the challenges that this network will address on a coordinated basis: undertaking projects to transform current bioethics training, creating specialist publications in Latin America, obtaining European research projects and engaging in creative initiatives to transfer bioethical reflections to society. Several working groups will be created as a result of this first meeting, with a view to holding a second meeting that has yet to be arranged.

A cross-disciplinary and collaborative discipline

The rector of the UVic-UCC, Josep-Eladi Baños, chaired the opening ceremony of the congress on Thursday morning, at which he declared his conviction that bioethics is " the spearhead for the recovery of humanities at universities in general and in biomedical studies in particular," and he described this discipline as "a subspeciality of moral philosophy, which has gradually carved out its own path." The rector defended the conception of bioethics as "a broad-based discipline that could be covered in all subjects in all studies." Baños was also an active participant in the congress, and on Friday he presented a communication about a study of the use of commercial cinema as a teaching method in bioethics, which he produced as director of the Educative Research Group in Health Sciences at the Educational Research Group in Health Sciences at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, which was the position he held before being appointed rector.

The director of the Bioethics Chair at the UVic-UCC, Núria Terribas, also advocated this "cross-disciplinary and collaborative vision" of bioethics for sharing knowledge and experiences, and creating new initiatives and projects. That, she said, is precisely one of the objectives of the congress, which also aims to "engage in self-criticism about the methods we have been using to date when teaching bioethics" and to "consider how we should do it so that bioethics is something that makes an impression on today's students."

The opening address of the Congress, which was given by Begoña Román, president of the Ethics Committee of the Social Services of Catalonia and lecturer at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Barcelona, made similar points. The speaker invited the attendees to engage in the self-criticism called for by Terribas, and to learn from some of the mistakes made in bioethics in recent years, such as "not having been able to change mindsets sufficiently", "having pigeonholed bioethics in the healthcare and voluntary work sphere" and "not having placed sufficient emphasis on the formation of the professional's character."

Román called for a return to the university, which he considered to be "a community of coexistence" and listed six points that need to clarified in order to improve teaching in bioethics: taking into account the specialist field of the student being taught to "cover it thoroughly, shake them up and make them understand that bioethics is a central aspect, and not merely an adjunct to their future practice”; providing a contextualised syllabus that reaches the student personally and professionally, and being "creative in pedagogical methods”; understanding that "we teach bioethics to create citizens who are convinced that life is worthwhile”; involving teachers from all fields in the perspective of bioethics; taking this learning outside the classroom and the faculty and being able to evaluate the impact achieved.

International experiences

The first round table on Thursday focused on international experiences in bioethics pedagogy, and featured contributions by the Chilean physician Juan Pablo Beca, a specialist in Paediatrics and Neonatology; Diego Real de Asúa, of the Francisco Vallés Institute of Clinical Ethics of the European University, and Chris Willmott, bioethicist and lecturer at the University of Leicester. The second round table provided a critical insight into the bioethical education of both students and professionals in active employment.

On Friday, the debate focused on the challenges facing bioethics and on how to be able to open up to society. In the afternoon, the closing lecture, "Ethics and society", was given by the philosopher and head of the Bioethics Chair Victoria Camps, Emeritus Professor of Moral Philosophy at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and President of the Víctor Grífols i Lucas Foundation. All the speakers make up a broad spectrum of professionals from Spain and elsewhere, from various fields including psychiatry, medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, philosophy and law, and all have expertise in bioethics as their common denominator.

For the organisation of this event, the Chair is working with the UVic-UCC research groups TR2Lab (Tissue repair and regeneration), M3O (Methodology, Methods, Models and Health and Social Outcomes) and SaMIS (Mental Health and Social Innovation) and the Medical Education Chair, under the umbrella of the Centre for Health and Social Care Research (CESS) and with the FORES (Osona Foundation for Health Research and Education) providing technical secretary services.