Titel: The Third International Days of Bioethics of Strasbourg - When beginning life stops

Termin: 25.3.2009 bis 28.3.2009

Veranstaltungsort:
Strasbourg , Frankreich

Weitere Informationen:
http://umb-www-10.u-strasbg.fr/thiel/mjt.php/mjt.php?idr=29&id=87&lang ...

Kurzbeschreibung: The fetal and neonatal medicine raises difficult questions for the concerned parents but also for the medical doctors, the health care teams and also for the society itself. How should we manage the severe fetal pathology? How far can we push the limits of the resuscitation? Should we do everything we can do? According to an INSERM study, 40% of the former premature babies have cognitive, sensory or motor deficits by the age of five. Should we allow these 10.000 premature babies who are born in France every year to die? Even if 60% of them come along well in the long run? What is the appropriate “good” attitude? If the pathology is severe or lethal at birth, who takes part in the decision process, who decides? Is it possible to replace the medical abortion with palliative care as soon as the baby is born?

In the postnatal period, the questions are not less crucial. Acute respiratory insufficiency, mutlivisceral organ failure, intracerebral hemorrhage can complicate the first week of life of premature babies leading to the question whether the medical team should go ahead with the intensive care measures. Later on in life especially neurological complications can sometimes appear in an already autonomous child. Intensive care manoeuvres at the time of delivery can cause severe neurological lesions. Threre are a lot of ethical dilemmas at this time in life: what should be done in those circumstances? How long is too long for resuscitation manoeuvres? Is actively giving death and letting die the same thing from the ethical point of view? Can an active stopping of life come after resuscitation manoeuvres over a limited time?

These are difficult and crucial questions... Of course, the parents are primarily involved. However medicine, society and the health care teams are also concerned. These decisions must be “responsible” but what does responsibility mean in this context? They have to be considered and assumed. However they will probably often be debated and be difficult to assume especially if death closes the story of a lifetime. Grief of the parents and burnout of the health care professionals.

Sometimes perseverance and the technical power of the medicine pay off. Then we hear and see joy and recognition. These two feelings allow medical teams to cope with whatever happens and to recognize as a standard a responsive conduct with attention for the singularities of the situations in life. A lot of skills are required to answer these questions. The discussion is not closed yet because these questions are challenging. However we need to face them: our humanity is at stake.

CALL FOR PAPERS

The authors of the two best articles from this call for papers will be invited to Strasbourg to present their contributions during one of the sessions of the seminar “Bioethics and Society”.

The author will send with his contribution

• his personal details: postal address, email, phone as well as his profession, his university or research center

• a 10 lines abstract in French, English and German if possible

Some practical details for the contributions

The text will have a maximum of 40.000 signs (spaces included) and notes and bibliography included. The bibliography should not exceed 2000 signs and be presented as follows :

• For a book: Dupont J. (2003), Title of the book in italics, Place of Edition, Editor.

• For a chapter of a book: Durand M. (2004), Title of the chapter without quotes in Dupont J. (dir.), Titre de Title of the book in italics , Place of Edition, Éditor, pp. 52-92.

• For an article: Durand M. (2007), Title of the article without quotes, Title of the Revue in italics, Place of Edition and editor if the journal is not national, volume, number , pp. 52-92.

The proposed contributions will be examined by a committee of at least two readers who give separate opinions. The copy given to the reader does not mention the identity of the author and the author cannot get the identity of the readers. The decision of the committee is given to the author by Marie-Jo Thiel. The refused articles will not be kept or returned to the authors.

Kontakt: Marie-Jo Thiel
To send a contribution

The papers must be sent printed on paper and a word file for December 31st, 2008 to the followind address:

CEERE, Centre Européen d'Enseignement et de Recherche en Ethique des universités de Strasbourg
Faculté de médecine
4 Rue Kirschleger
67085 Strasbourg cedex
FRANCE
marie-jo.thiel@medecine.u-strasbg.fr