The Initiative helps inform local, state, national and international policy debates about global issues in medical and biotechnological sciences through collaboration with NGOs and UN departments, bodies and agencies. The Initiative also sponsors scholarly endeavors dedicated to preventive medicine and seeks partnerships with health care professionals and other NGOs to provide educational venues and opportunities for confronting various medical issues facing developed and developing world countries.
The Initiative carries out its mission by providing a forum for convening scholars, government and international organization officials, health care professionals, and community leaders to develop innovative solutions to global problems, including:
- organ and human trafficking
- end-of-life care and decision-making
- reproductive and sexual rights
- stem cell research and therapeutic applications
- neuroscience and mental health
- infectious diseases and human epidemics
- genetically engineered food
- research ethics
- perspectives on aging, among others
The Initiative leverages the knowledge and experience of experts and other professionals in government, academia, and private industry as well as its own Advisory Board.
Location
With offices at 777 UN Plaza, overlooking the United Nations headquarters in New York City, the Initiative is a fully-independent, not-for-profit organization.
Issues
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international agreements define in various ways the normative state of global ethics. Many issues, however, have been widely addressed but remain intensely debated. Pertinent questions of interest to the Initiative include:
- Is there anything morally objectionable about nuclear transfer technology or cloning for reproductive or research purposes? In sentient animals? In humans?
- How are sectarian religious views in the U.S., the Vatican, and elsewhere driving global family planning policy and aid? HIV-AIDS research?
- Who owns bio-scientific knowledge? Can the international community negotiate norms of intellectual property that strike the appropriate balance between commercial interests in copyrighting and controlling medical and bio-scientific data and the compelling public interest in free and open access?
- What is the appropriate posture of the national and international health community towards practices such as female genital mutilation, medical witchcraft?
- What are the empirically substantiated risks and benefits of genetically modified foods? Are Northern environmentalist fears of pesticides undermining the fight against malaria and other infectious diseases in the South? Is Europe in the grip of an irrational bio-Luddism
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