The IHEU-Appignani Center for Bioethics in New York was started in 2004 by a generous grant from the Louis J. Appignani Foundation. It is truly the first of its kind – a bioethics project dedicated to understanding contemporary bioethical challenges from an explicitly Humanist perspective. Integral to the Center’s mission is stimulation of thoughtful, timely debate on these challenges, involving academics, medical professionals, governmental and international organizations, and many others. The Center works to bring interested parties together under Humanist principles, with the ultimate goal of informing and influencing the public – and policies – on matters of bioethical concern. In this manner, the Center acts, at times, as a counterweight to the myriad of religiously oriented organizations that function in similar roles.

The IHEU-Appignani Center for Bioethics is of interest not only because of its uniquely Humanist orientation, but also because IHEU holds special consultative status with the Social and Economic Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC). I have served as IHEU representative to ECOSOC and have attended regular briefings and events relevant to the Center’s goals. We have also been busy organizing symposia and interfacing with other non-governmental organizations, country delegates, and diplomatic missions on the Center’s behalf. Some of our activities are listed below.

Commission on the Status of Women (CWS)

The meeting of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) occurs every March. The IHEU-Appignani Center for Bioethics, in collaboration with PCI-Media Impact and Femme Afrique Solidarité (FAS) organized a panel discussion on February 28, 2007 engaging bioethicists, physicians and activists to discuss “Health and Empowerment: The impact of HIV/AIDS Epidemic Worldwide and Female Genital Mutilation in African Diaspora Communities” at the United Nations under the auspices of the Division for the Advancement of Women, Commission on the Status of Women. I moderated the panel and presented a paper on Female Genital Mutilation in the African Diaspora Communities. The discussion was open to public debate, with several UN news staff and media representatives attending.

Other NGO collaboration at the UN

In January, 2007, I was elected to the UN NGO Health Committee (CONGO). The purpose of the NGO Health Committee is to promote worldwide cooperation on health issues by providing a forum for the exchange of information on global health concerns, policies, services and research. The NGO Health Committee is a coordinating body of all health-related NGOs aimed at partnership-building. I have been a regular participant in the committee’s monthly meetings since January, providing input and reflecting the interests of the Center.

Also since January 2007, I have been a member of the UN HIV/AIDS Committee. I participated in a United Nations panel discussion on HIV/AIDS entitled “Implementing the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS: From Policy to Practice – Progress Achieved, Lessons Learned and Best Practices.” It was part of a one-day Special Session of the General Assembly to review progress on combating HIV/AIDS.

Address at a UNESCO forum

I was invited to participate in an International conference called, “Bioethics Today and in the Mirror of Future Generations Conference” in Eilat, Israel, 11—14 February 2007, organized under the auspices of UNESCO. I presented a paper, co-authored with Jason P. Lott of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, entitled “Professional Bioethics Committees, Women and the Future of Reproductive Biotechnologies.”

Public debates and media outreach activities

Each year the Center provides a forum for informed deliberation across a broad range of issues, including, but not limited to, women’s reproductive and sexual rights, stem cell research, organ transplantation, human egg markets, genetic engineering and neuroscience. Public debates have been promoted through conferences, panels, and symposia since the Center's inception in September 2004. In this respect, we have been successful in organizing a series of panels and annual conferences by engaging experts in bioethics, medical sciences, biosciences; NGO leaders; lawyers; policy-makers; Humanist activists; researchers and practitioners from around the world in an international and trans-cultural discussion.

National and European NGO collaboration

In the USA, partners for our lecture series and the annual conferences have included the Albany Medical School, the Institute of Ethics and Emerging Technologies, Genetics Policy Institute, PCI-Media Impact, and Femme Africa Solidarité (FAS).

At the international level, partners have included the Provinze International NGO based in Bremen Germany. In August 2007, I represented the Provinze Center and gave a presentation entitled, “Women’s Rights in the International Political Community: Improving the Capacity for Bioethical Issue Analysis in the U.S. and Eastern Europe”.

I have also collaborated with the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics – European Center for Bioethics and Quality of Life, Aosta Valley, Italy. After making initial contact with this European Center at the Israel conference I mentioned previously, it was decided that future collaborations between our Centers would be mutually beneficial. An American-European conference on the future of bioethics is planned to be held in Aosta in the Fall of 2008.

Publications

The Center also has also issued various publications, including a weekly column on bioethics in Humanist Network News [1], regular reports on bioethics in this magazine and on the IHEU website [2] and a blog hosted by Women Bioethics Project (WBP), the leading nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy think tank dedicated to women and ethical issues in health care and biotechnology [3], and at Post-Genomics [4].

Media coverage

I have represented the Center in various interviews as well as guest columns. The Center has also received ample popular press coverage in local newspapers, newsletters and the Internet. One of our forums was covered in Science.

Planned future activities at the UN for 2008

In February 2008 the Center will organize a panel discussion on behalf of the IHEU on organ trafficking and its impact on women’s and girls’ rights worldwide.

The Center also plans to join several other NGOs in signing an official statement about trafficking of women and girls, for the CSW meeting. Our ECOSOC consultative status allows us to formally adopt and become signatories to such statements.

For the 2008 General Assembly of IHEU in Washington, the Center will organize and moderate a panel on “Humanism Bioethics and Biotechnology for the 21st Century”. Professor Jonathan Moreno of the Center for American Progress has already agreed to participate.

The Center will also continue to provide input to various UN NGOs on HIV/AIDS as well as the NGO Health Committee in preparation for various meetings that will be held at the UN this coming year. I will also be among the speakers at several of these meetings/conferences.

Working group on women’s and girls’ issues

To expand our project with Femme Africa Solidarité and PCI-Media Impact, we will be forming an NGO with these organizations to represent our interests at the UN and UNICEF on issues on such as HIV/AIDS as well as helping to establish a network of like-minded NGOs around the world, working on behalf of girls and women affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

We also intend to meet members of the delegations to CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women) to represent the interests of our Center.

Thanks to our donors

The Center continues its activities in New York thanks to the generous support of the Louis J. Appignani Foundation and its President, Mr Louis Appignani, along with that of Mr Larry Jones, President of Institute for Humanist Studies and Vice-President of IHEU.

I invite all Humanists interested in bioethics to approach us with your thoughts and suggestions. The Center represents the voice of international Humanism, and that voice belongs to you!

1 http://www.humaniststudies.org/
2 http://www.iheu.org/
3 http://womensbioethics.blogspot.com/
4 http://www.medbioworld.com/postgenomics_blog

Ana Lita is the Director of the IHEU-Appignani Center for Bioethics