ASIAN FEDERATION OF CATHOLIC MEDICAL ASSOCIATIONS

Thursday, March 30, 2006

AFCMA President elected to IBC,Unesco

Dear friends,

I have a good news that I would like to share with you.As of March 14, 2006, I was appointed one of 36 members of the International Bioethics Committee, UNESCO.
As some of you may already know, the International Bioethics Committee of UNESCO (IBC) was established in 1993 to promote a transdisciplinary and multicultural debate on the ethical issues of advances in the life sciences, and this is the only advisory body within the United Nations system to engage in ethical reflection on life sciences and their applications. IBC elaborated the text of the Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights (1997), the International Declaration on Human Genetic Data (2003) and the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (2005). Recently, the Committee decided to focus its work on two principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights, one concerning consent and the other on social responsibility and health in 2006-2007. For a period of four years term, as a man of preventive medicine and public health, medical ethics education specialist, and especially as a Catholic physician, I would like to stress the importance of life education and hope to contribute to the Committee in developing life education curricula including bioethics at different levels of school.

Your support and prayers are very much appreciated.

With best regards in Him,
Kwang-ho Meng, MD, PhDPresident, AFCMAand Professor, The Catholic University of Korea Colellege of Medicine Seoul, Korea