Council of Europe

8th Conference "Meeting the challenges of changing societies", Dubrovnik, Croatia, 2005

This 8th meeting of COMETH followed on the achievements of the previous meetings held in Madrid, Stockholm, Paris, Oporto, Strasbourg, and Cyprus. Mr. Neven Ljubičič, Minister of Health and Social Welfare of the Republic of Croatia, greeted the participants and opened the COMETH proceedings. The Chairs of numerous national ethics committees, as well as the Chair of the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies, participated in this Conference.

Preimplantation diagnosis for HLA compatibility and ethical implications for an ageing society as well as the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine was at the center of the first day of the Conference. The second day focused on national ethics committees, their functioning and presentations of recent national ethics committee opinions on surrogacy, prenatal screening for cystic fibrosis, assisted reproduction, disputed memories and a survey on informed consent in genetic research.

Intergovernmental activities in bioethics worldwide and the 2004 Global Summit of National Ethics Committees were also addressed.