Robert Edwards, the father of IVF, who received the 2010 Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology, is one of the most important scientists of the world who has achieved numerous successes.
The first International meeting on Science and Ethics was organized in London and continued in Istanbul and Berlin together with Prof. Robert EDWARDS, who is the pioneer of first tube baby. The scientific committee of this important meeting consisted of Prof.Edwards, Edgar Dahl and Refik Kutluer.
The echoes of this series of meetings that has started in Royal society, London still continue.
“63-Year-Old Woman Becomes a Mother”
“Lesbian Couple Wants Deaf Children”
“Baby Born from Dead Father’s Sperm”
“The Girl Born to Save Her Sister’s Life”
Not a day goes by without headlines like this in the world’s newspapers, or “The First Human Clone is coming soon”.
There is no doubt that the breathtaking advances of human genetics and assisted reproduction raise strong emotions and raise puzzling moral questions for which most of us are not prepared.”
Prof. Robert G Edwards
First International Conference on Ethics, Science and Moral Philosophy of Assisted Human Reproduction was organized by Alabanda Tourism for the first time in the world at the London Royal Society Conference Hall, in 2004. Nobel prize winner Prof. Dr. Robert Edwards, known as the father of IVF, chaired the conference. Robert Edwards, Edgar Dahl and Refik Kutluer were the 3 members of the Scientific Committee and the meetings continued in İstanbul and Berlin.
What is reproductive freedom? When will the state have the right to interfere in the reproductive choices of its citizens? How should assisted reproduction practice be organized to ensure the well-being of children? Do certain reproductive technologies, such as reproductive cloning, genetic enhancement, or biased sex selection, violate the principle of human dignity? And: Are they taking us down a slippery slope towards Brave New World?
Morally debated main topics of the conference are;
Preimplantation genetic diagnosis, embryo donation, postmenopausal mothers, lesbian couples, stem cells, pre-conceptional sex selection, cloning, established pregnancies for surrogate mothers.
To improve the public debate on the ethical, legal and social implications of new reproductive technologies, 150 world’s leading genetics, ethics and legal experts participated in the discussion and shared their views on key issues in reproductive medicine.
The final declarations of the conferences were shared with the Parliments of the World.
Following the very successful opening conference at the Royal Society of London, the second conference was designed to examine the current status of in vitro fertilization treatments (assisted reproductive techniques) from a scientific and moral point of view and the whole conference organization was continued by Alabanda in Istanbul.
Morally debated main topics of the conference are;
The emergence of assisted reproductive techniques,
policies and legal regulations in Turkey and in the world,
Designer baby,
Embryo rights,
Pre-pregnancy sex determination,
Preimplantation genetic diagnosis methods and their use for treatment,
Egg and embryo donation,
Surrogacy,
Post-menopausal motherhood,
LGBT parenting,
Voluntary abortion,
Stem cells,
Cloning for reproductive treatment
Finally, a plenary session, which focused on the legal, moral and philosophical aspects of assisted reproductive techniques in different cultures, was held at the conference and attracted a lot of attention.