National Events

CBEC organizes a variety of different events including teaching sessions and workshops nationally. In addition, the faculty is also invited to conduct sessions related to ethics around the country.

CBEC and Khyber Medical University (KMU), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has had a long standing relationship since the past decade and after a brief hiatus, a workshop on ‘Healthcare Ethics’ was conducted in 2023 at the Peshawar Campus for the Institute of Public Health and Social Sciences. Following the success of the last workshop, CBEC, as part of its CK-BTI program decided to conduct a workshop again in collaboration with KMU. The current workshop was held at Institute of Health Sciences, KMU, Hazara Campus.

Titled “Ethics and Methods of Research,” the workshop aimed to introduce participants on the basis of research and to highlight ethical challenges associated with health research with a focus on genomic research. Moreover, the workshop provided an overview of the ethical review process in Pakistan and highlighted issues related to scientific misconduct contextualized to the realities of Pakistan.

Twenty-three participants attended the workshop out of which 15 were from within the Hazara region. Ten were nominated from the main Peshawar campus and affiliated institutes within KMU.

CBEC Faculty who taught during the workshop included Dr. Aamir Jafarey, Professor at CBEC-SIUT, Ms. Sualeha Shekhani, Assistant Professor at CBEC-SIUT, Dr. Natasha Anwar, Molecular Pathologist at Aga Khan University and Hospital, Lahore and MBE alumnus Class of 2019 from CBEC, and Dr. Amjad Mahboob, an infectious disease consultant from Swabi, KPK and PGD alumnus Class of 2020. Dr. Arshad Altaf from the WHO-EMR Office also joined and provided an overview of grant opportunities for the EMR.

Dr. Farhat Moazam was invited to give a keynote address during the AKU Bioethics Conference. Her talk titled, Bioethics Education: “View from the Inside” considered the ethics of ordinary, everyday clinical practice which is an essential ethical requirement for practicing physicians and other healthcare professionals. Quoting the parable of the Tower of Babel in the ancient city of Babylon, Dr. Moazam made the point that bioethics education in Pakistan faces a Babylonian situation. While there are many voices that talk about the importance of this type of education, people remain unsure as to who should teach and how the subject should be taught. Dr. Moazam ended the talk stating that in order for bioethics education to be successful in Pakistan, it needs to be contextualized to local realities.

This two-day workshop took place right after the completion of the final module of the academic sessions of the PGD and MBE classes. The workshop focused on “how to teach bioethics” and was led by Dr. Shahid Shamim and Dr. Bushra Shirazi, along with Dr. Aamir Jafarey and Ms. Sualeha Shekhani. Applications were invited from the current classes of PGD and MBE, CBEC alumni and others who were involved in teaching bioethics at their institutions across Pakistan. Twenty applicants attended the workshop selected from more than eighty applicants. The workshop focused on enabling critical thinking, ethical reasoning and compassionate decision-making in the students through various modalities. Participants were involved in hands-on exercises including making of lesson plans and mock teaching sessions followed by elaborate feedback by the faculty. This workshop was a part of CK-BTI, funded by Fogarty International Center (FIC), USA.

The aim of Ziauddin University’s Patient & Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) Initiative is to engage lay members of society to make research beneficial to the public. CBEC faculty introduced participants to the differences between medical practice and research, trial participants and patients, and doctors and researchers. Participants from varied backgrounds including those involved in community engaged found the workshop useful and practical in their work.

The Pakistan Association of Urological Surgeons (PAUS) invited Dr. Moazam to give a State of the Art Lecture in their international conference. As a female surgeon, she chose to speak about the continuing challenges for women wishing to train in and practice surgery subtitling her talk Hunooz Dilli Dur Ast (Delhi is still far away), a famous phrase, traced to 14th century Sufi Nizamuddin Auliya. During her talk, she discussed the problems that women surgeons face focusing particularly on lack of mentors for women. She concluded by urging the audience to consider ways in which more women could be encouraged to pursue surgery.

During the launch ceremony of the WHO Benchmarking Tool for Research Ethics Oversight, Dr. Farhat Moazam was invited a panelist to discuss the merits and viability of the tool in the Pakistani context. She was joined by representatives from other countries including India, Nigeria and the Forum for Ethical Review Committees in the Asian and Western Pacific Region (FERCAP).

Dr. Aamir was invited to conduct the second grand round on ethics at the Department of Surgery, Aga Khan University. Dr. Aamir, an alumnus from the same department, spoke about the importance of focusing on ground realities during bioethical discussions rather than on esoteric topics or philosophical discussions that do not take sociocultural contexts into consideration. Using cases from the Pakistani context, he emphasized upon the role of virtuous physicians and empathetic communication in making the practice of medicine ethical.

The South Asian Bioethics Community is an online community established in early 2023 to engage young career scholars working in the field of bioethics in South Asia predominantly from India and Pakistan. It holds monthly events online including panel discussions, reading sessions as well as capacity-building exercises.

The June event saw Dr. Farhat Moazam and Ms. Sualeha Shekhani from CBEC invited to a panel discussion to speak about the historical trajectory of bioethics in Pakistan along with future directions in the area of research and clinical practice. From India, Dr. Sridhar Venkatapuram from Kings College London spoke about the philosophical foundations of the discipline of bioethics.

Dr. Saleem Islam, Chairperson of the Department of Surgery at Aga Khan University (AKU), initiated the inclusion of bioethics sessions in its Surgical Grand Rounds. Dr. Moazam, the founding Chairperson of this department (1985 – 1995), was invited to give the first talk on bioethics. She spoke about the arrival and trajectory of bioethics in Pakistan and urged for a greater focus on education and research connected to clinical ethics.

Organized for a cohort being trained in research and public health ethics by the Department of Medicine, AKU, this workshop focused on basic concepts in research ethics. These included taking informed consent from vulnerable populations. CBEC faculty, Dr. Aamir Jafarey, and Ms. Sualeha Shekhani ran this workshop. Case discussions based on local context were used to make the workshop relevant for the participants with backgrounds in non-communicable diseases.

CBEC faculty Dr. Aamir Jafarey, Dr. Nida Wahid Bashir, and Ms. Sualeha Shekhani conducted a three-day workshop titled “Ethics in Healthcare.” Each day was dedicated to a specific area including Public Health Ethics, Research Ethics and Clinical Ethics. Various teaching methods including videos and mini-cases were used to highlight ethical challenges in healthcare. Participants included graduate students from the Institute of Public Health and Social Sciences, Khyber Medical University (KMU).

CBEC organized a two-day workshop in response to a request by the World Health Organization (WHO) to assess the feasibility, relevance and validity of the “WHO tool for benchmarking ethics oversight of health-related research with human participants” within the Pakistani context.

Dr. Palitha Mahipala, WHO Representative (WR) for Pakistan, gave the opening address. Dr. Andreas Reis from the WHO Geneva Office joined online to introduce the purpose of the tool. Dr. Ahmed Mandil, WHO-EMR Office, provided regional perspectives via Zoom. Dr. Arshad Altaf from the EMRO in Egypt participated in person for discussion.

Twenty-one participants from all four provinces of Pakistan, with diverse experiences in ethics governance, participated in person. Dr. Obaidullah represented the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP), and Dr. Saima Pervaiz Iqbal who chairs the Research Ethics Committee of the National Bioethics Committee (NBC-REC), focused on ground realities of ethical governance at the national level.

The workshop concluded with a report incorporating participant feedback, which was submitted to WHO Geneva. In a subsequent email, Dr. Reis thanked CBEC and acknowledged that the Pakistani participants “went into great details” providing “entirely new, and excellent suggestions” that will help make the tool “more feasible and practical.”

The 7th International Conference: Sharing Solutions was held from February 2nd-5th, 2023, at the Shalamar Institute of Health Sciences (SIHS). During the conference, Dr. Farhat Moazam was invited by Dr. Farkhanda Ghafoor, PGD alumnus (2006), to deliver a keynote talk on the evolution of medical practice from traditional to modern and the challenges of making clinical practice ethical in the modern age. She discussed how the doctor-patient relationship and their interaction have changed in the past decades and how the focus is gradually shifting from the patient as a whole human being to numbers and charts. This conference was followed by a workshop on clinical and research ethics. Dr. Aamir, Dr. Bushra and Ms. Sualeha joined Dr. Moazam to conduct this workshop. After the events, Dr. Farkhanda hosted a Lahore-based alumni reunion at her residence, which included a scrumptious dinner with a BBQ.

During his visit to CBEC in January 2023 during the Foundation Module, Dr. Lombardo was granted the title of “Distinguished Professor of Law and Bioethics” by the Sindh Institute of Medical Sciences (SIMS) in recognition of his valuable and longstanding contributions to CBEC-SIUT. Dr. Lombardo is a Regents’ Professor and Bobby Lee Cook Professor of Law at Georgia State University and is well-known for his expertise in bioethics and law, particularly his work on the history of the eugenics movement in the early 20th Century.

Dr. Lombardo has been associated with CBEC since its establishment in 2004 and has been teaching the Law and Bioethics course for the Foundation Module since 2006. He has become a valued mentor and friend to CBEC faculty over the years.

A comprehensive two-half-day workshop on ‘Ethics in Human Subject Research’ was conducted for the Institutional Review Board (IRB) members of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Institute of Trauma, Karachi, on November 30 and December 1, 2022. The workshop, led by facilitators Dr. Farhat Moazam and Dr. Bushra Shirazi focused discussions on ethical considerations in human subject research. The workshop also included the screening of the CBEC video “Testing Times,” enhancing the participants’ understanding through a contextual case.

The 43rd Annual Conference of the Pakistan Association of Pathologists (PAP) and the 8th Joint Conference of Societies of Pathology was held from November 25th to 27th at Pearl Continental Hotel in Karachi. The final scientific session on November 27th, titled Scientific Session VI: Emerging Ethical Issues in Genomics featured a keynote talk by Dr. Farhat Moazam. Her presentation, titled “Genomics and LMICs: Ethical Challenges in Research and Practice,” delved into the ethical considerations surrounding genomics within the context of Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs).

Dr. Irfan Ahmed (Transplant and Oncology Surgeon, SKMCH) and Dr. Mariam Hassan (Clinical Research Administrator and PGD Alumnus) organized a pre-conference workshop during the 21st Shaukat Khanum Cancer Symposium. The workshop was conducted by CBEC faculty members Drs. Farhat Moazam, Bushra Shirazi, and Nida Wahid Bashir and moderated by the two organizers. The workshop addressed ethical challenges concerning disease disclosure, the futility of care, and end-of-life decisions are compounded for healthcare professionals dealing with oncological diseases, who often lack skills for communicating with patients and their families. Workshop participants included consultants and trainees from medical and surgical specialties from SKMCH, psychologists, nurses, pharmacists, and others. The workshop followed an interactive talk about the duality that characterizes modern medical practice.

The CBEC faculty conducted a series of one-day workshops at the Ziauddin University (ZU) Hospital’s Clifton campus to highlight the common ethical issues faced by medical trainees and consultants. Dr. Nida Wahid Bashir, CBEC Associate Faculty member and Consultant General Surgeon at ZU, led this effort with support from other colleagues at the Centre. The sessions focused on Informed Consent, which highlighted the ethical and legal significance of this process in medical practice. Another session focused on Research Ethics, which aimed to highlight the differences between the goals of medical treatment and human subject research, and the ethical conflicts that may arise when physicians conduct research. Another session engaged surgery residents in a thoughtful exploration of end-of-life issues. The teaching methodologies include interactive lectures and CBEC’s locally produced teaching videos.

Led by facilitators Dr. Farhat Moazam, Ms. Sualeha Shekhani, and Dr. Aamir Jafarey, the workshop encompassed a general introduction to research and its ethics with a focus on Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) and on the second day, featured practical components such as hands-on exercises for evaluating research proposals and discussion on a case of malnutrition research in low income settings. It was attended by 11 participants from SINA including its CEO, medical professionals and other staff members.

CBEC organized a one-day workshop focusing on academic writing skills for its faculty, alumni and healthcare professionals from the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT). Entitled “Basics of Academic Writing,” the workshop was an attempt to provide participants with fundamental skills and concepts that could help improve their written work. The event was run by Dr. Shahid Shamim, Associate Faculty, CBEC, and Ms. Kanwal Zehra and Ms. Rabiya Khalid of Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS), Karachi, both of whom have a background in linguistics and are currently pursuing their doctoral degrees. The workshop was attended by 18 participants on-site at CBEC.

A clinical ethics workshop titled “ ‘Then and Now’ of Clinical Practice; The Duality of Modern Medicine” was organized and run by Drs. Farhat Moazam and Bushra Shirazi at the Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS), and was the first on-site CBEC workshop to take place after more than two years of online interaction.

The workshop was an interactive discussion led by CBEC faculty on the duality that now characterizes modern medicine and the potential for negative repercussions for patients. Participants were then shown a CBEC teaching video, “More than meets the eye,” which linked the discussion to medical management of a quadriplegic patient. Discussion on the video highlighted how clinical practice often remained limited to procedural action whereas clinicians were also required to reflect on socio-cultural, economic and religious issues influencing medical practice.

Dr. Farkhanda Ghafoor, PGD alumnus, invited CBEC faculty, Dr. Aamir Jafarey, and Ms. Sualeha Shekhani to conduct a two-day workshop focusing on core areas of research and public health ethics. The workshop brought together a diverse group of participants including healthcare professionals, researchers, and Institutional Review Board (IRB) members. The introductory session highlighted key differences between therapy and research so that participants could reflect on their roles as researchers and clinicians and the ethical issues that may arise when these two roles conflict. Ethical issues associated with specific study designs were also discussed.

The Workshop addressed the specific needs of Ethical Review Committee (ERCs) members associated with HELP, a non-government organization focused on healthcare and education in Karachi’s slum settlements. Led by facilitators Dr. Farhat Moazam, Ms. Sualeha Shekhani, and Dr. Aamir Jafarey, the workshop encompassed a general introduction to research ethics and featured practical components such as hands-on exercises for evaluating research proposals and case-based discussions. This event offered ERC members valuable insights and tools for navigating ethical considerations in their work within the unique context of HELP’s initiatives in Pakistan. 12 participants from the organization attended this workshop.

The 7th Annual Surgical Conference’s Pre-Conference Workshop provided a focused exploration of ethical challenges in human participant research. The workshop was attended by faculty, residents, research associates, and research officers from various medical institutions. The workshop, led by facilitators Dr. Aamir Jafarey, Dr. Nida Wahid Bashir, Dr. Bushra Shirazi, and Ms. Sualeha Shekhani, served as an insightful introduction to navigating the complexities of research ethics.

Dr. Farhat Moazam was invited to give the keynote address at the inaugural session of the Aga Khan University Hospital’s (AKUH) 25th Postgraduate Medical Education (PGME) Conference. Dr. Moazam’s talk at the silver jubilee iteration of the PGME conference dwelt on the potential impact of Precision Medicine on people living in LMICs and the disconnect between Precision Medicine and the actual healthcare needs of most people.

The question of “how to teach bioethics” became the rationale for two Bioethics Pedagogy (BP) workshops run by CBEC faculty at the end of 2021. Applications were invited from our alumni and others who were involved in teaching bioethics at their institutions. The first BP workshop was offered in Karachi in November 2021 and was designed as a hybrid workshop, with 12 participants from Karachi and 12 online, from Kenya, Cameron, Singapore, and other cities of Pakistan. Based on small group work followed by actual teaching, the workshop provided hands-on practice in the use of videos, cases, and interactive lectures to teach bioethics, to both onsite and online participants. Sessions were led by Bushra Shirazi and Shahid Shamim, both surgeons and medical educationists with formal bioethics training.

The second BP workshop was organized for 12 selected applicants from Islamabad, Peshawar, and Lahore and was an in-person event, designed as a full-time 4-day residential retreat in the picturesque setting of the Margalla hills beyond Islamabad. The retreat format also allowed the faculty opportunities to explore non-conventional modalities of learning. These included a literary gathering after dinner on one of the workshop evenings, with faculty and participants contributing short stories and poetry that connected to ethics. On another evening students participated in a moral game that highlighted factors that influence ethical decision-making, such as personal life experiences, social standing, gender, sexuality, and conduct.

Dr. Aamir Jafarey and Ms. Sualeha Shekhani were invited at National Institute of Blood Diseases (NIBD) to conduct a session on the topic, Conflict of Interest. The interactive session titled “Making difficult choices” with medical trainees, faculty and researchers from the institute focused primarily on pharma-physician interaction within the context of Pakistan, a country that has resource constraints. Participants were encouraged to share the ethical issues that they had faced in clinical practice. They were then also provoked to ponder upon the issues that occur when physicians interact with pharmaceutical representatives on a personal basis. The discussion ended with a discussion on the different ways that conflict of interest can be managed, and the ethical ways to engage with the pharmaceutical industry.

CBEC held its 9th ethics workshop for schools on the theme of language and ethics. It was attended by teachers and senior administrators of various schools of Karachi. The workshop began with a discussion on language and power led by Dr. Nida Wahid Bashir and Ms. Anika Khan, in the context of Pakistan’s multilinguistic society and colonial history. This was followed by an interactive session led by well-known journalist and author, Ms. Zubeida Mustafa, in which she discussed the importance of the mother tongue in imparting primary education. Post lunch, participants engaged in hands-on activities related to language as a medium for teaching values to children.

Faculty members from CBEC including Drs. Farhat Moazam, Aamir Jafarey and Bushra Shirazi were invited to lead a workshop on Research Ethics at Khyber Medical University. The two-day workshop provided an overview of bioethics with a focus on research ethics, leading the participants to understand the functioning of Ethical Review Committees (ERCs). The faculty also utilized CBEC movie productions within the area of research ethics to generate discussion within the audience which consisted of both faculty members and trainees. The workshop was well-received, with a widespread interest in bioethics generated within the institute.

Dr. Farhat Moazam was invited to give a keynote address at the Annual Postgraduate Medical Education Conference at Aga Khan University, Karachi. The title of the talk, “A Clinican’s World: The Art is Long, Life is Short…….” Highlighted the dichotomies that exist in the way medical sciences is practiced in today’s world, while emphasizing upon the importance of viewing medicine not only as a science, but also as an art.

CBEC organized a workshop for Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Trauma Centre, Karachi within its own premises. The workshop ran for two half-days, and the first day covered topics including the importance of research ethics and a brief history of research ethics. Participants were familiarized with the difference between therapy and research. Moreover, following an interest within the Trauma Centre to establish an Ethical Review Committee, the workshop also focused upon the mandate and the functioning of the ERC, and the ways to review a proposal to see whether it meets the ethical requirements. The second day began with three case discussions performed in groups so that the participants could get a hands-on experience on the workings of an ERC. There were twenty participants from different fields within healthcare including physicians, researchers and administrators who attended the workshop.
The workshop was facilitated by Drs. Farhat Moazam, Aamir Jafarey, Bushra Shirazi and Ms. Sualeha Shekhani.

Dr. Bushra Shirazi and Ms. Sualeha Shekhani were invited for a workshop at the Department of Psychiatry, Civil Hospital, Karachi. The workshop which ran for approximately two hours covered the basics of research ethics, with the facilitators emphasizing upon the role of ethics within research. Using the historical example of Milgram case study to illustrate ethical violations in history, the participants were led to discuss the various ethical issues involved. The workshop then discussed the unique challenges that behavioral science research, specifically within the domain of psychiatry can pose to researchers. The session was well-attended with medical fraternity members from various ranks, including faculty, trainees, and medical students.

Dr. Aamir Jafarey and Ms. Sualeha Shekhani were invited for a session with postgraduate residents at DUHS. This session, focusing upon use of social media by physicians, is a series of lectures which are organised by one of CBEC alumni. Dr. Nazli Hossain. The session was interactive, attended by a mix of trainees and faculty, covering areas such as physicians connecting with patients on social media including Facebook, and sharing of images over media such as whatsApp. The ethical concerns associated with these areas were discussed in detail.

Dr. Nida Wahid Bashir and Dr. Bushra Shirazi conducted a public awareness session at Irtiqa Institute of Social Sciences on 27th July 2019. The topic of the session was “Medical Error, Ethics and Society.” Dr. Nida gave a talk on the topic followed by question and answer session moderated by Dr Bushra Shirazi. A thorough discussion was held on the perspectives of society and healthcare professional while addressing the trust issue in this area, and exploring the way forward.

CBEC, a WHO Collaborating Centre for Bioethics organized a two day conference and workshop together international and Pakistani experts and scholars to discuss the ethical and practical challenges faced in establishing deceased donor programs and the important role of transplant coordinators in addressing them. The plenary session held in the main SIUT auditorium was well-attended, and hosted a series of talks by experts from different parts of the world, including Spain, Iran, Saudi Arabia and India who spoke about their experiences. The rest of the conference was structured in a workshop format, confined to registered participants only. During these interactive sessions, the participants learnt about pertinent topics like brain death criteria, and the various ethical issues in deceased organ donation.

Dr. Aamir Jafarey and Ms. Sualeha Shekhani were invited by the Department of Psychiatry at AKU, Karachi to provide an overview about research ethics to the postgraduate trainees at the department. The teaching session focused on providing the medical residents with some flavor of bioethics including history of the discipline, moving onto research ethics, and then focusing upon the ethical issues that arise in behavioral science research. Participants shared their own experiences of research, and the conflicts that they had experienced while conducting research on sensitive topics like caregiving of children with Autism etc.

Dr. Aamir Jafarey and Ms. Sualeha Shekhani were invited at Cedar College to take a session with A levels literature students on the bioethical aspects of the book, Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro. The session discussed various themes including the concept of personhood as illustrated in the novel, the debate of using someone merely as a means to an end versus doing so if the benefits outweigh the costs, and use of technology just because it exists. The discussion was extremely interactive, with students providing their input and viewpoints.

The theme for this year’s workshop was on introducing various forms of disabilities and to think of ways that inclusion can be promoted in classrooms. Nineteen participants from different schools in Karachi attended the workshop.

The workshop was divided into three segments: Ms. Anika Khan and Ms. Sualeha Shekhani from CBEC introduced the participants to important concepts surrounding disabilities using different activities. The second session was co-facilitated by Ms. Afshan Bandeali, CBEC alumnus 2017 and Head of Junior School at The Learning Tree and Ms. Naila Jamali, the founding head of The Learning Tree. Ms. Bandeali first discussed the findings of her Masters thesis with the participants which centered on difficulties encountered by teachers during the process of inclusion in classrooms. The two then, through various activities illustrated the diversity that exists within us. The afternoon session was run by Dr. Ayesha Sanober, a Child Psychiary Fellow from Aga Khan University, Karachi who provided participants practical strategies to resolve issues of inclusion within classrooms.

Overall, the participants provided the feedback that the workshop was not only engaging and interactive, but was useful in terms of application within their school settings.

Dr. Aamir Jafarey and Ms. Sualeha Shekhani were invited to run a workshop at Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre (MALC), Karachi, Pakistan. Thirty participants including physicians, nurses, administrators and technicians among others attended the workshop which covered a brief introduction to bioethics with a focus on research ethics. The three-hour workshop was interactive and engaging with participants asking relevant questions.

Tabba Kidney Institute has been working towards formalizing bioethics within their institution through the initiative of CBEC alumnus, Ms. Madiha Farhan. To understand the workings of an Ethical Review Committee, CBEC faculty Dr. Aamir Jafarey and Ms. Sualeha Shekhani were invited by Ms. Madiha Farhan to conduct a three-hour workshop. Ten participants including physicians, nurses and administrators attended this workshop which proved to be extremely interactive.

SIUT organized a ceremony to commemorate CBEC’s designation as World Health Organization (WHO)’s 9th Collaborative Centre for Bioethics. The event attracted a wide audience including alumni of the Centre, the current students and staff and faculty at SIUT. The invited guests included Dr. Mohammad Assai Ardakani, WHO Representative in Pakistan and Dr. Andreas Reis, Technical Officer at Research, Ethics and Knowledge Management Unit, WHO Geneva. The event ended with Dr. Reis passing the WHO flag to Dr. Farhat Moazam, to symbolize the commemoration.

CBEC held its annual ethics workshop for school teachers at SIUT. The central theme for the workshop was discrimination existing at different levels of society. Ms. Anika Khan from CBEC began the workshop at 9:00 am with a discussion on importance of human rights, responsibilities and duties, followed by a “Human Rights Walk” which was thoroughly enjoyed by our participants, allowing them to reflect upon the rights available to different individuals within the Pakistani society.
This was followed by a three-hour session on “Gender and Society” led by Ms. Sualeha Shekhani from CBEC. The aim of this session was to understand the production of gender identities and the role that school textbooks and popular forms of media including advertisements can play in reinforcement of these identities. Sixty minutes were devoted to an interactive discussion on “Transgender” in society, dispelling some of the myths surrounding them, and allowing the participants to critically think about the plight of transgender individuals in Pakistani society, particularly the Khawajasirah community.
The afternoon session focused on “Bullying and Cyber-bullying”, a contemporary problem found in many schools. Dr. Ayesha Mian, Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Aga Khan University, Karachi discussed the various forms of bullying and recommended strategies for schools to deal with this menace. Participants found this session extremely helpful.
The participants were teachers and school administrators from private schools, including Haq Academy, The Learning Tree, Karachi Grammar School and Behbud Association.

CBEC organized its first ever “Urdu Baithak”, presided by renowned poetess, Zehra Nigah and moderated by well-known literary figure, Harris Khalique. The first part of the event focused on the importance of language for the development of character through talks by Noman-ul-Haq, a scholar of Islamic philosophy and history on شخصی اخلاقیات کا ارتفاء اور زبان کا کردار and Arfa Sayeda Zehra, a professor of history on ادب اور اخلاقی رویوں کی تشکیل

After these informative and thought-provoking talks, Naseer Turabi, an esteemed poet captivated the audience by reciting his verses. Following this, Zehra Nigah closed the event by sharing some pieces from her collection.

The event was greatly appreciated by the audience, who had come from all over the city to attend. Attendees praised the event by terming it “as the best event of the year” and urged for such events in the future organized through the CBEC platform.

Dr. Aamir Jafarey and Ms. Sualeha Siddiq Shekhani were invited by Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS), as a speaker for the session titled, “Ethics of using Social Media” held on Thursday, August 3, 2017. The one-hour interactive session focused on the ethical concerns associated with patient imaging on social media. Dr. Jafarey provided a background about the necessity of informed consent in using patient images, particularly within the domain of social media, whereas Ms. Shekhani presented the results from a study conducted by CBEC on the use of Facebook by medical professionals.

Dr. Aamir Jafarey and Dr. Nida Wahid Bashir were invited to participate in this conference. Dr. Jafarey spoke on the issue of pharma physician interaction and Dr. Nida spoke on issues related to medical error and negligence. Both sessions were very interactive. The audience consisted primarily of basic scientists working in the areas of genetic and molecular biology.

Dr. Moazam, Dr Aamir and Dr. Bushra were invited to conduct a one day workshop at the SMBB Medical College, Lyari. Karachi. This was the first workshop of its kind at the medical college and was attended by about 30 faculty members. CBEC videos were used to give the participants an overview of the main issues in both clinical and research ethics.

In April 2017, CBEC hosted an international conference in collaboration with Indonesia’s Centre for Bioethics and Medical Humanities (CBMH). The event was the second collaboration between the bioethics centres of Pakistan and Indonesia, the first being a workshop hosted by CBMH in Yogjakarta, Indonesia, in October, 2016. Spread over two and a half days, conference sessions included formal talks, teaching sessions and a case development workshop.

The “International Bioethics Collaborative Conference” began on the morning of April 18 with a full house at the open inaugural session. The diverse audience included journalists, medical professionals, faculty of the two centres and CBEC alumni, some of whom had travelled from different parts of Pakistan to be part of the event. The inaugural session, “Promoting Bioethics in Pakistan and the Region,” focused on global, regional and local strategies for enhancing bioethics education. Speakers included Dr. Abha Saxena of WHO, Dr. Ahmed Mandil of WHO/EMRO and Dr. Susan Vize of UNESCO, who were visiting CBEC and Pakistan for the first time. The three speakers representing UN agencies elaborated on efforts at different levels to promote and strengthen bioethics. Later, Dr. Farhat Moazam spoke about the challenges involved in developing Pakistan’s first bioethics centre, followed by Dr. Aamir Jafarey who focused on CBEC’s efforts to create bioethics capacity in Pakistan through its academic programmes. The last talk of the open session was by CBEC alumnus, Dr. Shahid Shamim, currently working at King Abdul Aziz University, Saudi Arabia, who discussed the role of assessment in bioethics education.

Later conference sessions were devoted to the next segment, “Tools for Teaching Bioethics,” which was limited to registered participants. The sessions in this segment focused on methodologies for teaching bioethics and involved hands-on activities, group participation and interactive discussion. The first session was an Ethics Case Development Workshop led by CBEC faculty. The workshop ended with participants working in groups to create their own cases centering on ethical dilemmas from their own experiences.

The second day of the conference began with the concluding session of the Ethics Case Development Workshop followed by two teaching sessions on the use of images and videos as teaching tools. These short sessions were followed by a workshop that demonstrated the working of a Hospital Ethics Committee (HEC) through role play. Spread over several hours, the session involved the selection of a HEC from among workshop participants. The HEC, comprising both Pakistani and Indonesian participants, was then presented with a case in which there was a difference of opinion between an obstetrician and her patient’s family regarding the termination of the patient’s pregnancy. The HEC was given the opportunity to meet with all key persons involved in the case, with CBEC alumni playing the roles of all protagonists. The day ended with a discussion about the HEC’s interaction with role play actors and the conclusions they had drawn about the case.

The last day of the conference focused on “Ethical Issues in Public Health Research.” The session included a talk on the science and ethics of dengue virus transmission and a presentation on the strategies adopted by the Government of Punjab in Pakistan to control the spread of dengue. This was followed by a presentation on an ongoing study on dengue control in Indonesia which involved large scale community engagement and consent issues.

CBEC and the University of Health Sciences (UHS), Lahore held a collaborative conference on March 20-21. Hosted by UHS, this was the university’s first bioethics conference and the first collaboration between the two institutions. The first day of the event focused on bioethics development and capacity building in Asia in general and Pakistan in particular. Speakers included Dr. Alastair Campbell, Visiting Professor in Medical Ethics and Emeritus Director, Centre for Biomedical Ethics, National University of Singapore, Dr. Farhat Moazam, Dr. Aamir Jafarey and UHS faculty whose talks were followed by sessions on behavioral sciences and clinical ethics. The day concluded with a workshop on understanding medical error.

The second day of the conference started with talks on ethical issues related to organ transplantation and trade by Dr. Leonardo de Castro, Professor of Department of Philosophy, College of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of the Philippines and Dr. Naqi Zafar, SIUT. Subsequent sessions focused on research ethics and used CBEC videos to generate discussion on informed consent in clinical practice, genetic testing and counseling, physician-pharmaceutical interaction and medical error. The sessions were led by CBEC faculty and alumni including Dr. Faisal Rasheed Khan, Al Nafees Medical College and Hospital, ISRA University, Islamabad, Dr. Faheem Khan, Consultant Psychiatrist, Lahore, Dr. Marium Hassan, Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre (SKMCH RC), Lahore, Dr. Saima Perwaiz Iqbal, Shifa College of Medicine, Islamabad and Dr. Nida Wahid, Patel Hospital, Karachi. The conference allowed a reunion of CBEC alumni from Punjab province and provided an opportunity to develop links between CBEC-UHS and other institutions from the region.

CBEC faculty was invited to conduct a workshop on research ethics at the University of Health Sciences, Lahore. In addition to Drs. Moazam and Jafarey, Dr. Natasha Anwar and Dr. Mariam Hassan, both PGD alumni, facilitated this workshop. The participants consisted mainly of basic scientists, but with some representation from clinical side as well as nursing. Some of the basic concepts in research ethics were discussed, with ample use of videos that CBEC has produced. On the second day, the students were given a composite case that they critiqued as IRB members, with Dr. Natasha playing the role of the Principle Investigator. About 22 people participated in the workshop, mainly from UHS but also from a couple of other institutions.

CBEC faculty was invited to conduct a workshop on clinical ethics at the Colocon Conference organized by Civil hospital Karachi. Drs. Moazam and Jafarey conducted the workshop with Dr. Nida Wahid Bashir. The areas covered included a broad introduction to bioethics, a discussion on moral dilemmas faced in clinical practice and how to analyse them. There was a segment on medical error and negligence, how to recognize these and the importance of having systems in place to prevent such instances. The participants consisted of clinical faculty and residents and a lot of interaction took place during the workshop.

This was a workshop to train the members of the Provincial Bioethics Committee of Baluchistan. Drs. Moazam and Jafarey were joined in the workshop by Drs. Aasim Ahmad, Jamshed Akhtar, Saima Pervaiz Iqbal and Ambreen Munir, all members of the NBC.

Drs. Moazam and Jafarey conducted a bioethics workshop at Shaikh Zayed Medical College, in Rahim Yar Khan. This was the first workshop on bioethics at this institution. After a general introduction of the field, the faculty covered basic topics including informed consent, end of life decision making challenges, plagiarism and scientific misconduct. The 30 participants included mid to senior level clinical faculty, residents and nurses, and there was a lot of vigorous participation in the discussions.

This workshop was organized by CBEC in collaboration with the University of Copenhagen from where three speakers also came over to participate. This workshop was a first of its kind in Pakistan, addressing emerging ethical issues in biobanking in Pakistan in particular, and the developing world in general. This workshop served as a mapping exercise, first in identifying stakeholders from across the country, which included scientists, institutions and policy makers who would find the workshop relevant as well as give the exercise relevance by their participation, and also in identifying biobanks in operation in the country.

Participants included scientists who are associated with biobanking, bioethicist, national bioethics committee members and researchers who wanted to learn about this emerging field and its accompanying ethical challenges.

The discussions were wide ranging, often reflecting the lack of specific understanding of what biobanking entails. The format encouraged extensive debate, with each of the 8 talks over the two days having 90 minutes of discussion time, a period that often seemed too short.

The final session was devoted to discussing the Guidelines for Collection, Usage, Storage, and Export of Human Biological Materials (HBM) which were under development by the National Bioethics Committee of Pakistan. Input was obtained from all the stakeholders present in the meeting.

The participants were able to raise a number of relevant ethical issues about which there was little or no general awareness even in the scientific community. The discussions were engaging since the 40 or so participants actively attended both days.

Ms. Anika Khan led a workshop on critical thinking for teachers and coordinators of Behbud schools, as part of their annual training programme. Entitled “Critical Thinking Skills in the Classroom,” the workshop focused on moral reasoning and critical thinking at middle school and secondary school levels.

Dr. Bushra Shirazi and Dr. Aamir Jafarey were invited by the Northwest General Hospital and Research Centre Peshawar on December 20 and 21, 2015 to run a workshop on bioethics. This is a relatively new private hospital which is starting its medical college next year and wants to introduce bioethics in the undergraduate medical and nursing curriculum from the very beginning. Drs. Shirazi and Jafarey provided an overall introduction to clinical and research ethics, to an audience of approximately 45 people including physicians, nurses, trainees from different disciplines and hospital administration.

There was also a group discussion on how Northwest Hospital should proceed with the establishment of ethics processes at this institution.

In December, the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) organised a five day International Symposium to commemorate the completion of its 40 years. SIUT’s International Symposium featured a number of bioethics related events organised by the Centre of Biomedical Ethics and Culture (CBEC, SIUT).

On December 9, 2015, CBEC organized a one day workshop “Understanding medical error and negligence” that focused on highlighting issues of medical error, negligence and near misses in clinical practice. Over 40 people participated in the full day workshop, including physicians and nurses. The course faculty included Dr. Nida Wahid Bashir (Patel Hospital), Dr. Aamir Jafarey (CBEC-SIUT), Dr Gulzar Lakhani (AKUH), and Dr. Yasmin Wajahat (Qatar Hospital). The objectives of the workshop were to enable participants to differentiate between commonly used terms like error, negligence, complication, near miss and malpractice. There was also a session on the techniques and process of root cause analysis of clinical mishaps of different kinds. There was lively participation by those attending the workshop.

On December 11, CBEC organized a bioethics symposium that began with a plenary session entitled “Bioethics interfaces with science.” The three plenary speakers included Dr. Alex Capron, Professor, Scott H. Bice Chair in Healthcare Law, Policy and Ethics, USC Gould School of Law, USA, Dr. Alastair Campbell, Professor in Medical Ethics and Director, Centre for Biomedical Ethics, National University of Singapore, and Dr. Sanjay Nagral, Dept. of Surgical Gastroenterology, Jaslok Hospital & Research Centre Mumbai, India.

Dr. Capron in his talk “Human death: Fixed or fuzzy?” spoke about the ever evolving concepts of human death, especially in the modern era of wide availability of invasive and extreme life support possibilities. The difficulties become even more pronounced when the dying person’s organs assume the potential role of a life saving commodity for several others. Following Dr. Capron’s talk, Dr. Nagral spoke on “End of life in healthcare settings: a South Asian Perspective”. Using examples of end of life cases from within India, he described the challenges common to any developing world scenario, where the process of death involves not just the dying person, but entire families who suffer perhaps even more than the dying individual. Both these talks generated a lot of discussion since deliberations on death and dying always raise a lot of questions.

Dr. Campbell discussed the emerging ethical challenges posed by biobanking in his talk “Biobanking: The ethical and governance issues.” Biobanks are relatively new yet rapidly increasing facilities which have also emerged in the developing world. As with any new development, there are no established guidelines that are universally acceptable for governing activities in such biobanks. Dr. Campbell raised a number of ethical issues that have emerged as a result of the possibility of indefinite storage of human biomaterials for potentially indeterminate research at some time in future. Even though Pakistan has no known biobank at this time, it is only a matter of time till such entities emerge. Dr. Campbell responded to several questions after the talk.

This was followed by a session called “Bioethics on the Ground,” showcasing alumni from CBEC’s two academic programs, the symposium session featured five alumni talking about different areas of their interest. The session exemplified the diverse nature of interests of the alumni and how they are applying their training in bioethics in research, education and raising general awareness.

Dr. Natasha Anwar, PGD Class of 2007, now working at Forman Christian College, Lahore, in her talk entitled “Proofreading the book of life?” spoke on the emerging ethical challenges in genomics and the capacity to alter the human DNA. Dr. Mariam Hassan, PGD Class of 2010, from Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre, Lahore, spoke on cancer screening in her talk “God’s will and cancer genetics”. She related the challenges arising out of socio-cultural context when pursuing her research work. Dr. Nazli Hossain, PGD Class of 2014, in her talk “When Bioethics enters clinical practice” spoke about her experiences in trying to “implement” bioethics in her ward after her graduation from the program. She described the unexpected hurdles that she faced and how she went about negotiating them.

Dr. Saima Pervaiz Iqbal, PGD Class of 2008 and MBE Class of 2011, from Shifa College of Medicine, Islamabad, spoke on “Ethics outside the classroom: a contradiction in terms”. In her talk she discussed realities on the ground and how they seemed to conflict with bioethics discussions in classrooMs The last talk in the session was by Dr. Elizabeth Bukusi, MBE Class of 2013, from Kenya Medical Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya. A researcher and clinician, Dr. Bukusi shared her experiences in doing field work in Africa. In her talk “Between research and exploitation in Africa: Knowing the difference” she spoke of the vulnerability of her research subjects to exploitation by researchers, funding agencies and even governments. Most of her concerns were valid for the Pakistani context also. The symposium was very interactive and a lot of questions were posed to the speakers. Also attending the seminar were several Karachi and Sindh based alumni.

Ms. Anika Khan ran an ethics workshop for teachers of the Deepchand T. Ojha (DCTO) Campus, a government school run by Kiran Foundation in Lyari, Karachi. The interactive session focused on teachers as role models who can foster learning in cooperative and ethical environments. The session was attended by around 35 teachers of both primary and secondary grades.

CBEC organized a symposium “Bioethics goes to school,” building upon the work the Centre is already doing with schools through workshops for teachers and high school students. The one day event brought together more than three hundred people including scholars, educators and students. The event featured scholarly talks on ethics in education, an ethics debate by college students and brief dramatic performances on ethical issues by school and college students.

CBEC PGD alumnus Dr. Farkhanda Ghafoor (class of 2006) organized a bioethics seminar at Shaikh Zayed Hospital on to introduce faculty residents, students and nursing staff to bioethics. Drs. Aamir Jafarey and Farhat Moazam presented papers and held a discussion session with the attendees.

As part of the ongoing efforts of the National Bioethics Committee (NBC, Pakistan) to raise national capacity in bioethics, a workshop was organized for members of the Punjab Provincial Bioethics Committee (PBC). The workshop was held in Lahore at the Office of the Director General Health, Punjab and was attended by PBC members as well as faculty of teaching institutions.

The workshop, conducted by Dr. Farhat Moazam and Dr. Aamir Jafarey was facilitated by Dr. Natasha Anwar, (member, Punjab PBC), and Dr. Farkhanda Ghafoor, (member, NBC and Punjab PBC).

CBEC held its yearly summer workshop on ethics for schoolteachers at SIUT. Faculty facilitated interactive sessions in which participants discussed the sources of values, examined ways of sensitizing children to ethical issues in society and engaged in hands-on activities for critical thinking about ethical dilemmas.

National Bioethics committee of Pakistan has been holding a series of capacity building bioethics workshops for its members and the members of the four Provincial Bioethics Committee (PBC) members, and members of the Azad Kashmir Bioethics committee at regular intervals.

CBEC organized this activity for NBC to train members of the Sindh PBC members at its premises in Karachi. This was attended by all PBC members and new inductees of the NBC. Faculty included Drs. Aasim Ahmad, Farhat Moazam and Aamir Jafarey.

CBEC faculty ran a one day workshop on ethics for school teachers at SIUT. This well attended workshop was presented in Urdu and focused on stories and proverbs as vehicles for ethical discourse in classrooms.

At the 2015 Teachers’ Literature Festival in Karachi, Ms. Anika Khan led a session called “The Power of Stories: Using children’s literature to teach the craft of writing, foster critical thinking and develop ethical values.” Attended by teachers representing different schools of the city, the interactive session featured three different stories as springboards for examining ethical issues, and teaching writing skills and critical thinking in classrooms.

CBEC faculty was invited to conduct a second workshop on bioethics for mid career faculty at the SMBBMU Larkana after a successful similar workshop for senior faculty held in October 2014. The workshop was held for 40 faculty members, most of who were from clinical departments. Dr. Agha Riaz, CBEC PGD alumnus of the Class of 2010, organized the event, with the support of the University Registrar and Vice Chancellor. The first day of the two day workshop was focused on Research Ethics while the second day was for Clinical Ethics. The faculty made use of its video productions to raise many ethical issues which led to a lot of debate.
Judging by the level of discussion during the workshop, it was apparent that there was a lot of enthusiasm for bioethics among the faculty. The University already has a dedicated department of Biomedical Ethics, headed by Dr. Riaz, which looks after the bioethics education in MBBS and BDS groups, and also organizes the ERC functioning at the University.

Dr. Aamir Jafarey participated in the 13th Annual Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre Symposium on November 23, 2014 via Skype. The CBEC video “A matter of trust” was used to highlight ethical issues in clinical research. The participants of the panel included IRB members, researchers and senior hospital administration. The discussion brought up issues related informed consent, the importance of independent ethical review, therapeutuic misconception, conflict of interest and standards of care.

Cbec faculty, as part of the National Bioethics Committee (NBC), ran a two day workshop in Quetta on November 14-15, 2014. Dr. Aasim Ahmad, current member of NBC and Mr. Shaukat Jawaid, medical journalist and past member of the NBC, also facilitated sessions. Members of the newly formed Balochistan Provincial Bioethics Committee and several other health care providers from the province attended the workshop. The workshop followed a day-long meeting of the National and Provincial Bioethics Committees in Quetta.
On the first day of the workshop, the focus was on clinical ethics, while the second day’s sessions were related to research ethics. Several bioethics videos produced by CBEC were used on both days to initiate discussions.

Drs. Farhat Moazam and Aamir Jafarey were invited by the Vice Chancellor of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University, Larkana, Sindh, to conduct a bioethics workshop on October 23-24, 2014. Larkana is situated more than 450 kilometres away from Karachi when travelling by road, near the historic site of Mohenjo Daro.

The workshop was conducted at the premises of Chandka Medical College and was inaugurated by the Vice Chancellor, Dr. Asghar Channa, who welcomed the guests in an opening plenary, following which Dr. Moazam gave a talk introducing bioethics to a larger audience, highlighting the evolution of bioethics and different trends that have shaped bioethics worldwide.

After the conclusion of the plenary session, the workshop formally commenced with about 30 senior faculty, including heads of departments and professors, and a few junior faculty participating. Day 1 of the workshop focused on research ethics while Day 2 was devoted to clinical ethics. In the sessions, CBEC videos were used to generate discussion on pertinent issues.

The interest and engagement of the participants was evident in the discussions and the Vice Chancellor invited CBEC to conduct a follow up workshop in the next few months, focusing on junior faculty.

Drs. Farhat Moazam and Aamir Jafarey from CBEC, together with Dr. Riffat M. Zaman from the Aga Khan University, Karachi, were invited to conduct a workshop on March 7 and 8, 2014 entitled “Ethics in Psychological Research and Clinical Practice.” This was held at School of Social Sciences and Humanities NUST, Islamabad through the Department of Behavioral Sciences. The two day event started of with a half day seminar of bioethics and its relevance to research for a university wide audience, presided over by the Rector of NUST. This was followed by a workshop for 25 participants, most of whom were psychologists from different institutions in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. This is the first workshop organized by CBEC which was entirely for social scientists and was therefore a challenge to develop. Using cases and videos, the faculty kept the participants engaged throughout the event.

During an open session, the participants were asked to share some of the dilemmas they have experienced during their practice of clinical psychology and a number of interesting, and challenging issues came up for discussion.

CBEC faculty was invited to Peshawar by Khyber Medical University (KMU) to conduct its biannual workshops. This time, however, a Clinical Ethics Workshop was added on to the usual Research Ethics workshop that we have been conducting for the past 4 years.

The Clinical Ethics Workshop held on December 18, 2013 included about 60 physicians, nurses, physical therapists and students. Drs. Moazam and Jafarey used CBEC videos, lectures and specific cases to highlight the various ethical issues. The participants also raised specific cases that they had encountered in their own clinical practice which generated a lot of discussion.

As always, the Vice Chancellor also attended part of the workshop and was most encouraged to see yet another dimension of bioethics being introduced to the KMU faculty and staff.

The next two days were spent in a Research Ethics Workshop with students of the Masters in Health Research (MHR) students of the university. These students also come from different backgrounds including clinical medicine, research and nursing and hail from different institutions within Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa province and also from other provinces. This two year MHR course is the only such degree course in health research being offered at any institution in Pakistan and research ethics has been a part of it from the very beginning.

Most of the second day was spent in discussing the research proposal of the 16 students of the course. A lot of ethical issues were brought to light and suggestions were put forward on how to address them.

CBEC’s international conference on “Emerging Ethical Issues” was held on December 6 and 7, 2013, at SIUT, Karachi. The conference themes explored different ethical issues in the areas of pharmaceutical and research ethics, genetic screening and biobanking, and deceased organ donation.

The two day conference attracted a diverse audience with a common interest in emerging bioethical challenges. In addition to the large number of health-related professionals, there were journalists, scholars, educationists and individuals from various walks of life who listened to speakers discussing ethical issues both in global and local contexts. A highlight of the conference was the mix of international speakers, some of whom were first-time visitors to Pakistan, and national speakers, many of whom were alumni of CBEC’s Postgraduate Diploma (PGD) program.

On Day 1 of the conference, speakers discussing issues in pharmaceutical and research ethics included Dr. David Healy, Professor of Psychiatry at Cardiff University, UK, Dr. Marisa de Andrade, researcher at Stirling University, UK, Ms. Sandhya Srinivasan, a journalist associated with the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics and Dr. Rana Muzaffar, molecular biologist at SIUT and PGD alumnus.

Sessions on genetic screening, research and biobanking, were led by PGD alumni Dr. Mariam Hassan, researcher at Shaukat Khanum Hospital, Lahore, Dr. Natasha Anwar, Associate Professor of Molecular Biology at Forman Christian College University, Lahore and Dr. Jamshed Akhtar, paediatric surgeon at the National Institute of Child Health, Karachi.

On day 2 of the conference, Dr. Anwar Naqvi, urologist and Coordinator CBEC, Dr. Farhat Moazam, Ms. Sandhya Srinivasan and Dr. Aamir Jafarey discussed various aspects of deceased organ donation and the development of organ donation programs in Pakistan and elsewhere.

Following the end of the open sessions was a CBEC Forum led by Dr. David Healy, continuing with the theme of pharmaceutical ethics on which he had given a key-note address on the previous day. The day ended on a cultural note with an ‘Ethics and Culture Hour’ featuring well-known architect and social activist, Dr. Arif Hasan, who discussed the evolution of Karachi and its current problems.

Drs. Farhat Moazam and Aamir Jafarey were invited to conduct sessions at the Shaukat Khanum Cancer Research Symposium held on November 29-30, 2013. Compared to last year, when there was only one 20 minute talk on bioethics, this year’s symposium, co-organized by CBEC PGD alumnus Mariam Hasan (Class of 2010) who works as a researcher at SKM, was cumulatively almost an entire half day of the event.

In the first session on clinical ethics Dr. Moazam and Dr. Natasha Anwar (alumnus, PGD Class of 2008) used a CBEC movie “More than meets the eye” to initiate a discussion, followed by a session on pharmaceutical ethics in which Dr. Jafarey and Dr. Marisa de Andrades made presentations and then participated in a lively panel discussion with two other discussants. The third session was on ethics case consultations in which cases were discussed by a panel consisting of Drs. Aamir Jafarey, Natasha Anwar and Robyna Khan of Aga Khan University, Karachi.

Ms. Anika Khan facilitated a workshop entitled “Through each other’s eyes” for the teachers and mothers of students at Kiran School, a preschool operating in a disadvantaged area of Lyari, Karachi. Using the code of conduct booklet introduced by the school, the workshop attempted to show teachers and mothers how moral reasoning and critical thinking could be introduced into children’s daily lives. Another focus of the workshop was on showing how religious and cultural sources could be used to reinforce moral values.

Ms. Anika Khan was invited to conduct a workshop entitled “Developing a Code of Conduct: Ethics in Education,” for the remedial teachers of READyslexics, Karachi. The workshop featured group work in which teachers participated in putting together a draft for an ethical code of conduct for their institution.

Ms. Anika Khan was invited to conduct a workshop entitled “Developing a Code of Conduct: Ethics in Education,” for the remedial teachers of READyslexics, Karachi. The workshop featured group work in which teachers participated in putting together a draft for an ethical code of conduct for their institution.

Ms. Anika Khan conducted an ethics session for high school students at the Lyceum, Karachi. The session featured activities in which the students learned to identify ethical questions and discussed ethical dilemmas in research and medicine.

CBEC faculty organized a two-day workshop for school teachers of primary and secondary grades at CBEC-SIUT. During the workshop, Ms. Anika Khan facilitated sessions on methodologies for introducing ethics and critical thinking into classrooms while Dr Bushra Shirazi gave a presentation on plagiarism.

Drs. Farhat Moazam and Aamir Jafarey conducted the first research ethics workshop in Karachi for the senior faculty and staff members of CPSP, organized by its department of Medical Education. CPSP expressed its interest in CBEC organizing similar workshops for its faculty in the other provinces of Pakistan.

Ms. Anika Khan was invited to conduct a workshop on dyslexia for teachers from different schools of Orangi Town. The workshop featured an introductory presentation on dyslexia and a discussion on the ethics of inclusive education in schools.

The interactive, well attended half day workshop on bioethics was conducted by Drs. Farhat Moazam and Aamir Jafarey at The Lyceum for its teachers and staff at their invitation. The Lyceum is interested in introducing ethics sessions in the future for their students.

As part of her PGD Project Ms. Farzana Amir Hashmi, Class of 2012, instituted an IRB at the Tabba Heart Institute where she works as a Administrator. Drs. Farhat Moazam and Aamir Jafarey organized and ran a research ethics workshop for the IRB members to provide them the basics of ethical review of research proposals.

Ms. Anika Khan conducted an ethics session for O’ Level students at the Haque Academy, Karachi. The session featured a short movie depicting discrimination in society and was followed by a discussion on fairness in which students identified different forms of discrimination and tried to understand the underlying causes.

CBEC organized a three day seminar on Gender and Ethics from December 18-20, 2012. This was connected to the Fourth Module of the Masters in Bioethics and the Postgraduate Diploma in Biomedical ethics programs conducted by CBEC.

The seminar opened with an Academic Lecture be renowned anthropologist Dr. Ziba Mir-Hosseini on “Men the Guardians of Women: The Unmaking of Legal Fiction”. This was followed by a talk by Dr. Mohsin Naqvi on “Abrahamic Religions and Gender Relationships”.

These two sessions were followed by a 2 day workshop for registered participants and CBEC students on “Gender, Islam and Rights perspectives”. This was conducted by Dr. Mir-Hoseini and Dr. Khalid Masud, a renowned Islamic scholar.

The workshop was followed by a session by lawyer Ms. Sharmeen Khan on “Protecting Women: Current Pakistani Laws”. The seminar ended with a session on Blasphemy led by Dr. Mohsin Naqvi and guest speaker Bishop Ashraf.

CBEC faculty conducted a Research Ethics Workshop at Khyber Medical University (KMU), Peshawar. This was their 6th workshop conducted for KMU and its affiliate institutions in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. There were approximately 60 participants of the workshop, including students enrolled in the M.Phil and Ph.D programs of the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, KMU, researchers, trainees and consultants. A unique feature of this particular workshop was an emphasis on ethical issues in genetic research. This was done since most students were working on genetics related research projects. Dr. Natasha Anwar, PGD alumnus of the Class of 2007, currently Associate Professor at Forman Christian College University Lahore, specially drove up from Lahore to join Drs. Farhat Moazam and Aamir Jafarey, and conducted the genetics related sessions. As always, Dr. Tasleem Akhtar, Professor Emerita of KMU and Dr. Hafizullah, Vice Chancellor of KMU were present on the occasion and thanked CBEC-SIUT and the faculty for the continuing collaboration, now in its 4th year.

Ms. Anika Khan led an ethics session for O’ Level students at the Haque Academy, Karachi. The session featured activities in which the students learned to identify ethical questions and discussed ethical dilemmas in research and medicine.

Drs. Farhat Moazam and Aamir Jafarey were invited to Peshawar to conduct a 2 day seminar on bioethics for 13 students enrolled in the newly inaugurated Master in Health Research (MHR) program of Khyber Medical University (KMU). Since 2009, CBEC faculty has been traveling to Peshawar twice a year to conduct workshops in Research Ethics for healthcare professionals admitted to KMU Research Methodology courses. This visit however involved an “Introduction to Bioethics” seminar tailored specially for the University’s MHR students. The seminar had a broad focus on bioethics as a contemporary discipline, its strengths and weaknesses, as well as ethical issues arising during human participant research. The students, an interesting mix of dental practitioners and public health physicians, were engaged, articulate and very interactive during the sessions.

KMU stands out as a premier public sector university in Pakistan unique in laying a great deal of emphasis on bioethics in general and on research ethics in particular. It does this by seamlessly incorporating ethics education with training related to research. This has been made possible by the personal involvement of the KMU Vice Chancellor Professor Hafeezullah, and Professor Tasleem Akhtar whose efforts were recently recognized by the KMU Syndicate which conferred on her the title of Professor Emerita. Particularly remarkable is that both Professor Akhtar and Professor Hafeezullah have made it a point to be present during most bioethics sessions. They also ensure that CBEC faculty is accorded a personal and warm welcome during every visit to Peshawar.

Dr. Aamir Jafarey was invited to conduct a two day workshop on Research Ethics at the Islamabad Campus of Isra University. Along with Dr. Jafarey, CBEC alumni from Shifa Medical College Islamabad, Dr. Bushra Khizar and Saima Pervaiz Iqbal were facilitating the event. There were thirty participants from 11 institutions from Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Abbottabad and Hyderabad. Issues like conflict of interest, Informed Consent and Pharmaceutical-Physician Interaction were discussed at length.

Dr. Aamir Jafarey, along with CBEC alumni Drs. Natasha Anwar, Farkhanda Ghafoor and Naseer Chaudhry, conducted a workshop at Fatima Memorial Systems, Lahore, on December 15-16, 2011. This was the second workshop that CBEC has conducted at this hospital.
The workshop was attended by 27 participants including IRB members, faculty and trainees from different departments of the institution.

The Centre of Biomedical Ethics and Culture (CBEC), SIUT, inaugurated a three day workshop entitled “National Workshop on Strengthening Ethical Review Committees” in collaboration with EMR-WHO and PMRC on November 17, 2011. Twenty-four participants, 12 of them from out of town, participated along with 10 engaged observers. At the inaugural event, attended by about 200 people from different institutions, Dr. Haytham Al Khayat, Senior Policy Advisor at EMRO, Cairo, gave the keynote address entitled “The stance of Islam on science in general and human subject research in particular.” Dr. Mohammad Abdur Rab, Regional Advisor, Research Policy and Cooperation at EMRO, Cairo, spoke on the new guidelines for ethical review being developed by WHO.

The workshop faculty included several CBEC alumni including Drs. Mariam Hassan, Saima Iqbal, Bushra Shirazi, Natasha Anwar and Rana Muzaffar. In addition to revisiting the basic concepts, various sessions also tackled emerging issues like ethical concerns in genetic research and ethical issues raised by contract research organizations. Ms. Kausar Khan took a session on ethical issues in community based research while Dr. Aasim Ahmad led an interactive session on the ethical issues in research conducted in disaster situations.

Drs. Moazam and Jafarey made their way to Peshawar for the 4th Research Ethics Workshop at the Khyber Medical University, Peshawar. This was in fact their fifth visit to Khyper Pakhroonkhwa province in 2 years to conduct workshops organized by the Khyber Medical University. The event was attended by over 100 participants as part of their overall training in research capacity. The participants came from varying backgrounds including dentistry, medicine, and public health.

At the conclusion of the workshop, the organizers had organized a special event for the launching of the newly revised Islamiat Curriculum for medical students. This curriculum was developed to link Islamiat with the experiences that the physicians will have in clinical practice. Dr. Moazam was invited to deliver a keynote address at the event entitled “Indigenizing Medical Ethics in Pakistan: Merging religious values and contemporary bioethics”.

Later, the group was invited to meet the Governor of the province and present the Islamiat Curriculum to him.

Drs. Farhat Moazam and Aamir Jafarey were invited to visit Saidu Medical College, Swat to conduct a two day workshop on Research Ethics. This workshop was attended by approximately 60 faculty members of the college, including the members of their newly established Ethical Review Committee. The workshop consisted of interactive lectures and group work. The Karachi Bioethics Group’s Ethical Guidelines for Pharma-Physician Interaction were also presented on the occasion, which led to a lively discussion.

Drs. Moazam and Jafarey conducted a workshop on Research Ethics at Patel Hospital, Karachi on April 4, 2011. This was primarily for the members of the Hospital Ethics Committee that has been in existence at Patel Hospital for several years. This committee has a mandate to provide ethics consultations as well as to review research proposals for ethics approval. The workshop was organized by Dr. Nida W Bashir, CBEC alumnus of the PGD Class of 2011, to help strengthen their capacity for ethical review. In addition to members of their ethics committee, also in attendance in the day long workshop were several other members of the staff who share an interest in bioethics.

CBEC invited renowned scholars from within Pakistan and abroad to this Seminar and Round Table Discussions. Each of the four days had a particular theme with Day 1 setting the stage. Day 2 focused on jurisprudence, past and future whereas Day 3 was on history and society. The seminar ended on Day 4 which focused on Pakistani women, trials and triumphs.

The four days were designed to provide not only a broad range of talks, but also focused in-depth discussions. In addition to the seminar talks on all 4 days which were open to the general public, there were Round Table Discussions for pre-registered participants on the afternoons of Days 2 and 3 during which the speakers went into greater depth in their discussions with the 30 or so participants, often broaching “sensitive” topics.

There was an Awards Ceremony to give diplomas to the 8 successful Postgraduate Diploma Students in biomedical Ethics, Class of 2010, which was also the first batch to receive the diplomas issued by Sindh Institute of Medical Sciences, SIUT’s academic umbrella. Click here to see program.

CBEC faculty were invited to conduct a day long Research Ethics Workshop for members of the newly established Ethical Review Committee (ERC) at Bahria University’s Medical College in Karachi on January 24, 2011. The event was organized by Dr. Ambreen Usmani, CBEC alumnus of the PGD Class of 2011. She also serves as the coordinator of the ERC at her institution.

CBEC faculty was invited to Peshawar to conduct a workshop on research ethics for its faculty and staff. This is part of a mandatory training in research methodology that KMU conducts in six monthly cycles. The 50 participants included individuals from a variety of medical backgrounds and added to the richness of the discussions.

Dr. Farkhanda Ghafoor (Class of 2006) invited CBEC faculty to conduct a workshop on clinical ethics at her institution on November 11-12, 2010. Over 40 participants attended the event, with a notable presence of dental practitioners among the participants. This also served as a good opportunity for a reunion of CBEC alumni stationed at Lahore.

CBEC faculty, Dr. Moazam and Dr. Jafarey, together with Ms. Anika Khan, one of the MBE students, Class of 2011, were invited by the Research Directorate of Khyber Medical University (KMU) to conduct a workshop on Research Ethics for researchers. A similar event was conducted by CBEC faculty at KMU earlier this year also. This was a one and a half day workshop in which participants were given an overview of research ethics. Specific issues like conflict of interest and informed consent were discussed in detail. They were also taken through an exercise of developing Terms of References for Ethical Review Committees. On the second day, the morning was spent in specific case discussions.

The afternoon of the second day was devoted to a seminar on medical ethics in which a panel discussion was held to propose recommendations for developing bioethics in the country. The panelists consisted of members of the medical community, media, a PMDC representative and Islamic scholars. Dr. Moazam initiated the proceedings with a talk highlighting the various ethical and professional issues that confront physicians today. Ms. Anika Khan then highlighted the patient’s perspectives in how healthcare is delivered to the common man in this country and how suffering is actually enhanced by the callous attitudes of the various care providers.

Following the presentations and panel discussion, a set of recommendations was presented by Dr. Aamir Jafarey. Further input from the audience was sought via email so that their recommendations could be finalized.

CBEC faculty drove to Nawabshah at the request of the Peoples Medical College to conduct bioethics sessions with their students and postgraduate trainees. The students session was attended by about 200 students from 4th and 5th year MBBS. Dr. Moazam gave an overview of bioethics and Dr. Jafarey followed by showing a movie, a CBEC production “The Sounds of Silence”, and then moderating a discussion afterwards.
The session with the trainees from different specialties was held in the afternoon in which discussions were held on different ethical issues.

CBEC faculty took a five hour car ride into the interior of Sindh to the town of Nawabshah to conduct a two day workshop on Clinical Ethics at the Peoples Medical College (PMC). WHO was a collaborating partner in arranging the workshop at PMC. The event was attended by 30 faculty members, ranging from Assistant Professors to Professors and Heads of departments. Dr. Moazam began the proceedings by giving an introduction to clinical ethics. She gave the background for the development of interest in biomedical ethics in the West. She quoted several instances highlighting exploitation of patients and public at the hands of physicians and researchers and how these incidents were instrumental in galvanizing public opinion and thereby providing a stimulus for the development of a new field of biomedical ethics. Dr. Aamir Jafarey spoke on identifying ethical dilemmas and how to deal with them once they were identified. On the second day, Dr. Aamir gave a presentation on physicians appearing in commercials and being involved in promoting products, highlighting the ethical issues raised by these activities. Dr. Bushra Shirazi made a presentation on the recently launched Karachi Bioethics Group Ethical Guidelines for Physician-Pharmaceutical Industry Interactions, highlighting some of its salient features. This led to a very good discussion in the application of these guidelines in the public sector setting.

CBEC faculty was invited to conduct a two day workshop on Research Ethics at Khyber Medical University (KMU), Peshawar, on September 28 and 29, 2009. This was organized by the Directorate of Research and Development of the University. The participants included faculty and trainees from the KMU affiliate institutions from within Peshawar and from other cities including Mardan, Kohat and Swat, to mention just a few. The Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Mohammad Hafizullah, attended the entire workshop personally, as did the other senior faculty of KMU, indicating the level of interest at the institution for research ethics.

There were over 200 participants in the open sessions and even the small group sessions had about 100 participants taking part in lively discussions. Since most of the KMU affiliate institutions are in the process of developing ERCs, the workshop was of great relevance to them, especially the component on development of Terms of Reference for ERCs.

The CBEC faculty came away after promising to conduct further workshops in Peshawar in the near future.

The event was organized in conjunction with the 8th Cancer Symposium of the Hospital. Dr. Samina Mansoor, student of CBEC’s Postgraduate Diploma in Biomedical Ethics, Class of 2007, was the main organizer. The event was attended by over 200 participants from SKM and also other hospitals. CBEC alumni from Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi also attended the event. In addition to Drs. Farhat Moazam and Aamir Jafarey, the speakers included Dr. Richard Cash from the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, and Dr. Athula Sumatipala from the Institute of Research and Development, Colombo.

CBEC was invited to organize and conduct a workshop for training the members of the newly established ERC at Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences on February 23, 2009, at Jamshoro. The workshop was constructed to give participants the actual experiences of the ERC and a number of important issues were covered. During the workshop, Dr. Moazam gave a talk on “Human Subject Research and Ethics Review Committees” and Dr. Jafarey spoke on “Fundamental concepts for Ethical Review for ERC members”. This was followed by small group work and case discussions.

CBEC organized this two day event which consisted of open plenary sessions and a workshop on clinical ethics for registered participants. Approximately 200 people from different walks of life attended the open sessions while 55 were registered for the workshop.

Drs. Farhat Moazam and Aamir Jafarey were invited to conduct this workshop at Shifa College of Medicine, Islamabad. This ethics workshop was organized on behalf of the institution by Drs. Ashraf Hussain and Bushra Khizar, both graduates of CBEC’s Postgraduate Diploma in Biomedical Ethics, Class of 2007. This was the first workshop related to research ethics at the institution and drew in a wide variety of participants.

This conference was organized by CBEC at the request of COMSTECH and was funded by Higher Education Commission (HEC). Professor Attaur Rahman, Chairman HEC inaugurated the event. Participants included Dr. Darryl Macer from UNESCO, Bangkok and Dr. Sahin Aksoy from Haran University, Turkey (via video link). Along with the CBEC faculty, a number of PGD graduates also presented papers at the conference which was attended by participants not only from the Rawalpindi-Islamabad area but also from other regions of Punjab and NWFP. This event included two workshops, one on bioethics education led by Dr. Macer and the other one on clinical ethics, facilitated by Drs. Farhat Moazam, Aamir Jafarey and Bushra Shirazi.

This workshop was organized by CBEC in collaboration with UNESCO and mainly focused on introducing high school teachers to the various tools which can be used to teach bioethics. Dr. Darryl Macer of UNESCO, Bangkok facilitated the workshop which was attended by approximately 80 teachers from all over the city as well as a few from outside Karachi.

This workshop was organized by Ms. Farkhanda Ghafoor, a graduate of CBEC’s PDG Class of 2006. This was a first of its kind at this major training institute and research centre and drew in participation not only from the host institute but from neighboring institutions as well. Drs. Farhat Moazam and Aamir Jafarey facilitated the workshop.

Dr. Farhat Moazam gave an invited talk on “Doctor Sahib Yeh Larka Hai Ya Larki?” (Doctor Sahib, is it a boy or a girl?). She addressed the medical, legal and social issues connected to intersex and gender identity disorders in Pakistan.

Drs. Farhat Moazam and Aamir Jafarey conducted this workshop which was organized by Drs. Ashraf Hussain and Bushra Khizar, both students of CBEC’s Postgraduate Diploma in Biomedical Ethics, Class of 2007. The morning session was open to all and consisted of plenary talks while the afternoon was devoted to an interactive workshop for 30 participants.

Dr. Farhat Moazam participated in a panel discussion on “Kidney Transplant as Organ Trade” at the symposium of DUHS, held at the university campus in Karachi. Also on the panel were Drs. Adib Rizvi and Anwar Naqvi, among others.

This was the third talk by CBEC Faculty at the PMA House in this series of lectures meant for junior physicians and house officers.

This was the first symposium on Medical Ethics ever held at CMC and was a great success with the audience asking for more.

Dr. Aamir Jafarey gave a keynote address at the Biannual Meeting of the MRSP at Ayub Medical College, Abbottabad. The title of his talk was “Research Ethics: Historical Context and Perspectives from Pakistan.”

Dr. Farhat Moazam was invited to give a guest lecture at Hamdard University, Karachi. Entitled “A Mixture of Medical Ethics and Tibbi Akhlaqiat”, the lecture took place at the Madinat-ul-Hikmat campus.

A talk on “Informed Consent” by Dr. Aamir Jafarey was given at the PMA House, Karachi. This was the second talk by CBEC Faculty at the PMA House in this series of lectures meant for junior physicians and house officers.

CBEC was asked by Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) to organize regular educational sessions for young medical professionals on contemporary ethical issues in clinical practice. The first session was held at the PMA house in which Dr Farhat Moazam spoke on “Contemporary Ethical Issues in Clinical Practices.”

The College of Family Medicine, Pakistan, runs an ongoing International Course for MRCGP (Membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners, UK) for the benefit of trainees in family medicine as well as general practitioners of the city. Drs. Aamir Jafarey and Farhat Moazam were invited to conduct a session in Karachi on bioethics in which they covered “Respect for Persons,” and ethical dilemmas related to “Privacy and Confidentiality” in medical practice.

Dr. Aamir Jafarey was invited to give a talk at the Aga Khan University Postgraduate Medical Education Conference on June 2, 2006. The topic of his presentation was “Commercial Influences Affecting Professionalism: The Physician’s Perspective.”

This conference was organized in collaboration with UNESCO and focused on training high school teachers to incorporate bioethics education in their curricula. This was the first bioethics training opportunity focusing on high school teachers in Pakistan and there were over 100 participants from all over the city as well as from neighboring towns.

This two day conference with international and regional speakers aimed at familiarizing medical researchers, physicians, nurses, administrators, research sponsors and government policy makers about risks to research subjects, and how these can be minimized.

This eight week, two cycle course was funded by the Wellcome Trust, UK. It began its first cycle in November 2005. Dr. Aamir Jafarey, who was a co-PI of the grant, was also one of the faculty members teaching this course.

This half day symposium was organized to discuss the different ethical aspects of stem cell research and cloning. Speakers included eminent scientist Dr. Qasim Mehdi, renowned haematologist Dr. Tahir Shamsi and Dr. Farhat Moazam.

An international conference on “Common Values between the West and Islam” was held from June 15 to 17, 2005. Dr. Aamir Jafarey presented a paper on “Respect for Human Dignity: A Physician’s Reflections on the Process of Informed Consent.”

This week long event was the first academic activity undertaken by CBEC at SIUT premises. It consisted of a daily seminar which was open to public where scholars presented their papers and an intensive course for a limited number of registered participants.