FACING DISRUPTION. CHALLENGES TO BIOETHICS, HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY

In recent years, the world has experienced profound disruptions: the climate crisis, a pandemic, wars and armed conflicts, mass migrations, disinformation and fake news, as well as subversions of democracy. These phenomena call into question our commitments to such foundations of democratic societies as autonomy and equality, transparency, solidarity, fairness, and the rule of law. They also, and most importantly, cause disruptions in our thinking.

If democratic societies, which are founded on the belief in human dignity and rights, are to survive and thrive, they need the capacity to deal not only with the emergencies and crises of the surrounding world. Democratic societies must also be able to overcome disruptions in thinking. We need to be conceptually and normatively prepared for the challenges of our times and the future, which are posed by the development of new technologies, the climate crisis, global epidemics, war and armed conflicts, and assaults on human rights and democracy. Since bioethics – both as a field of research and as a practice of democratic societies – depends on commitment to human dignity and rights, these challenges also mean disruptions to bioethics.

The 2023 annual EACME Conference in Warsaw, Poland, will be a forum for reflection on these global and intersecting challenges to bioethics, human rights, and democracy. We would like to engage the participants in a debate on the central topics of our time that demand a reasoned, rigorous and open discussion.