Dear Colleagues,

The third Islam and Bioethics International Conference (following Haifa University, 2001, and Penn State University, 2006) will take place at a venue belonging to Ankara University: Çolaklı - Antalya, Turkey, on 14-16 April, 2010.

Prof. Berna Arda from Ankara University and Prof. Vardit Rispler-Chaim from the University of Haifa are co-organizers.

Participants and speakers from various disciplines are welcome (medicine, Islamic studies, natural sciences, law, history, sociology, philosophy, etc.). Proceedings will be conducted in English. Please email a titled abstract of 250-300 words, as a Word document attachment, referring to any of the topics suggested below, to Prof. Berna Arda (Berna.Arda@medicine.ankara.tr ) no later than September 1, 2009. Your abstract should carry your full name and institutional affiliation, as well as your email address and workplace or university address. Notification of acceptance will be sent out by November 1, 2009. Information on registration, accommodation and travel directions will be provided in a later communication.



Suggested topics

- Methods and sources of justification in Islamic medical ethics
- Setting bioethical principles in Islamic ethics
- The difference between new and old medical knowledge
- Evaluation of traditional medicine in respect of travellers
- The physician-patient-family triad in healthcare in Muslim societies.
- Interplay of traditional Islamic teaching and local cultural settings.
- Interplay of traditional Islamic teaching and secular medical ethics; between universal principles of medical ethics and Islamic ethics.
- Muslim responses to water, climate, and the environment as influencing healthcare.
- Organ trafficking and transplantation. Donated organs from executed criminals and organs obtained without the donor’s permission.
- Ethical decision-making processes, what is right or wrong.
- Medical tourism.
- The use of contraceptives, for both males and females.
- Reproduction technologies
- The principle of autonomy as related to personal decision making concerning health and research issues
- Interdisciplinary debates (involving physicians, philosophers, jurists, social scientists, theologians, etc.) in multicultural societies, where Muslims are a minority or a majority.
- Pre-modern literature of medical relevance and its authoritative power in contemporary medical ethics.
- Muslims’ migration into the USA and European countries, and the ethical dilemmas it creates.
- Preparing for death, euthanasia, and treating the terminally ill.
- Old age and disability.
- The power and limitations of medical sciences.
- Abortion and ensoulment.
- Aesthetic medical devices and Islamic medical ethics.



Members of the local organizing committee
Prof. Berna Arda , Ankara University, School of Medicine
Prof. Hayrani Altıntaş, Ankara University, Faculty of Divinity

Prof. Esin Kahya, Ankara University, School of Humanities
Prof. N. Yasemin Oğuz, Ankara University, School of Medicine
Assoc. Prof. Serap Şahinoğlu , Ankara University, School of Medicine
Assoc. Prof. Müfit S. Saruhan, Ankara University, Faculty of Divinity
Assist. Prof. Ahmet Acıduman , Ankara University, School of Medicine
Dr. Önder İlgili, Ankara University, School of Medicine
Dr. Volkan Kavas, Ankara University, School of Medicine


Members of the international organizing committee


Prof. Berna Arda, Ankara University, Turkey
Prof. Jonathan Brockopp, Pennsylvania State University, USA
Prof. Amnon Carmi, UNESCO Chair in Bioethics
Prof. Agostino Cilardo, University of Naples, Italy
Prof. Ersilia Francesca, University of Naples, Italy
Prof. Nouzha Guessous-Idrissi, Faculty of Medicine, Hassan II University
Casablanca, Morocco
Prof. Farhat Moazam, Chair, Center of Biomedical Ethics and Culture
SIUT, Karachi, Pakistan

Prof. Ahmed Okasha, Director, Institute of Psychiatry, Ain Shams University, Egypt
Prof. Vardit Rispler-Chaim, University of Haifa, Israel


Looking forward to a fruitful conference,

Berna Arda (Berna.Arda@medicine.ankara.tr )
Vardit Rispler-Chaim (varditrc@research.haifa.ac.il)