India: FIAMC Bio-Medical Ethics Centre

OUR MESSAGE

Oswald Cardinal Gracias

ARCHBISHOP OF BOMBAY & PATRON
FIAMC BIO-MEDICAL ETHICS CENTRE

We are aware of the tremendous advances being made in medical and health sciences, but the benefit of this technology often does not reach the masses. The pandemic has highlighted how the health situation of our country needs greater attention. The intrinsic dignity and worth of every person needs to be defended.

We also need to be aware of the various ethical issues that seriously affect the health of our people – right from the first moment of conception until the end of life. Keeping this in mind, the F.I.A.M.C. Bio-Medical Ethics Centre has been running from 2004 a nine month Certification Course in Healthcare Ethics, to guide people to make correct moral decisions in the light of the teachings of the Church, in matters such as abortion, contraception, organ donation, euthanasia, ethics in cancer care and surgeries, ethics of handling addictions and substance abuse, ethical concerns in intensive case stations, care for the elderly, the mentally ill and palliative care.

I do recommend this valuable course to anyone who wants to learn and deepen his/her medical knowledge on these life issues and to study the ethical principles to be applied based on the teachings of the Church. It will also be helpful for all those involved in education children, youth and young adults as well as for catechists, nurses, medical students, social workers and people from all walks of life who serve others.

Dr. Nicholas Antao

CONSULTANT ORTHOPAEDIC SURGEON;
HOLY SPIRIT HOSPITAL, ANDHERI
| MG. TRUSTEE & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FBMEC

It is my honour and privilege to welcome you to the newly set up website of the FIAMC BIOMEDICAL ETHICS CENTRE, www.fiamcmumbai.com. The FIAMC Biomedical Ethics Centre was started in 1981, with the mission objective to provide information to professionals, health care workers, educators, social workers, the religious and people of all walks of life on ethico-moral issues.

The centre carries out its mission by imparting education in ethico moral matters, with the belief that life is sacred from the moment of conception to death. To achieve our constitutional objectives, we hold seminars, orations, discussions, workshops, and most importantly a certificate course in Bioethics. Experts and experienced faculty from all walks of life, medical, legal, social workers and theologians are enlisted to deliver these courses.

The centre assists in interactions generally with the society in ethical matters involving health care, environment and medical services. Since human life is of inestimable value, the fundamental aim and objective to give life its due respect and dignity by preserving , promoting and protecting life, while accepting the fact that death is inevitable. The board of trustees and I intend to take the centre to a higher level. It is hoped to make the centre a resource place where one can get extremely reliable opinions on matters of ethics. We aim to have it as a reference centre on the lines of other international bio ethic bodies.

Our Academic Dean, along with the board of Trustees is responsible for the drafting the program of the Bio- Medical Ethics Course. This year onwards, we have collaborated with the Nirmala Niketan College of Social Sciences, an autonomous college affiliated to University of Mumbai. I feel confident that you will find a great deal of educative material to enlighten and widen your perspectives in ethics. I hope that the knowledge gained will help you and others to make sound decisions that could add value to your life .

Adv. Joaquim Reis

SR. ADVOCATE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA ADDL. MG. TRUSTEE, FBMEC

FIAMC is organising yet another excellent course on ethics, both in the field of medicine and law. In the world of today where competition hallmarks success and money, fame and power become our priority, ethics are forgotten and the worldly flavours attract us to do things that are not professionally correct. The need of ethics is paramount for these two noble professions.

I remember that 60 years ago doctors and lawyers by and large practiced ethics very conscientiously and held the interests of their patients and clients to heart. Sadly, with growing consumerism and worldly affections these principles of ethics have lost their charm and magic. Frankly speaking ethics is the cornerstone and foundation of our success, without which these two professions lose their identity as revered professions. In these pandemic days we are called to revisit and reinvent our approach towards ethics, and hence courses like these give us opportunities to think, discuss and be the necessary change in a cataclysmic world.

This year in particular is a special year because the course is being conducted in collaboration with esteemed Nirmlala Niketan College of Social Work (Autonomous)

Fr. Stephen Fernandes

PROF. OF ETHICS AND MORALS
CHIEF CONSULTANT FBMEC

The FIAMC Bio-Medical Centre was set up as a non-profit educational and research organization in bio-medical, ethical and other medical fields, for the benefit of all public without restriction of age, caste, creed, religion or economic and other status, in order to achieve the aims of moral education as one of the objects. In advocating respect for human dignity, it fosters and promotes a culture of life in giving a public understanding to ethical questions in medicine, science, and technology, where everyone cares and respects the other from the beginning of life till the end of life. Right from 1981, under guidance of its Patrons and Board, it has been carrying out the research work availing the services of Doctors, Nurses, Ethicists, Scientists, Theologians, Social Workers, Psychiatrists, Jurists and Lawyers and other skilled professionals for studying and promotes Bio-medical ethics and conducting and encouraging research in various fields including bio-medical ethics, life, health, disease, death and other increasingly growing important ethical issues that affect the precious gift of life. Through its various educational and bio-medical research activities, it acts as an advisory that upholds and disseminates bio-ethical and human values to people of all walks of life and also to various institutions, including educational and healthcare bodies.

Prof. Dr. Anu Kant Mital

ACADEMIC DEAN
F.I.A.M.C.BIO MEDICAL ETHICS CENTRE

The F.I.A.M.C., an International Federation of Medical Associations has been the parent to the Nascent Bio Medical Ethics Centre in the midst of the verdant St Pius X College Campus in Goregaon, Mumbai India. The Bio Medical Ethics Centre strives to empower and enhance skill sets and knowledge of moral & ethical issues of peoples at large. It provides training to help dealing with the various ethical and moral conflicts that crop up in our everyday life when faced with Healthcare issues.

Considering that the vast and rapid advances in the healthcare field have led to major life saving and lifespan extending discoveries, it is not surprising that these advances have been drawn into ethical and moral & religious controversies. From the beginning of life events like assisted reproduction to surrogacy, from Organ Donation to Gene transformation and Stem cell therapy, from Maintenance of life procedures to Advanced directives and Persistent vegetative states, and the issues of Euthanasia-active or passive, we are facing real time conundrums all day. To make sense and get some proper perspectives that honour and respect the views, moral, ethical values
and real life issues of all the stakeholders, is not only difficult but often impossible, unless there are some guiding principles that can help us and others make the right decisions.

Towards this end, Rev. Fr. Stephen Fernandez and Managing Trustee Dr. Nicholas Antao have been conducting various activities with the help of Nationally and Internationally renowned faculty and resource Persons, to conduct workshops and conferences as well as panel discussions that cover some of these issues. The most important activity has been the Bio Medical Ethics Course since more than a decade, which runs for a year and this year, it has been granted Affiliation by the Esteemed Nirmala Niketan College of Social Work.

As the Western India Unit Head, UNESCO Chair( Haifa) of the Asia Pacific network of Biomedical Ethics, and the Academic Dean of the FIAMC Bio Medical Ethics Centre, I have the honour to invite you all to join and help enrich us and yourselves in the ongoing empowerment of our Ethical Moral and Religious Values. Our vision is to have many in the community who are sensitized in these decisions that are often very contentious and contrary to held beliefs of
some of us.

This website is an active one which intends to keep updating the content and remain current with issues at all times. We invite you to visit and give us feedback as also to contribute to the content by expressing your views and perspectives.

FIAMC INDIA

Fédération Internationale des Associations de Médecins Catholiques

CATHOLIC PHYSICIANS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD MÉDECINS CATHOLIQUES DANS LE MONDE - MÉDICOS CATÓLICOS EN EL MUNDO

Fédération Internationale des Associations de Médecins Catholiques