Abstract

As a member of the UNESCO International Bioethics Committee (IBC) in 2005, I was privileged to serve on the small drafting group of the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights, which was expertly chaired by the Australian Justice Michael Kirby. That draft matured over two years and was adopted by acclamation at the General Assembly of UNESCO in 2005. The project was conceived out of dissatisfaction with the generally perceived preoccupation of bioethics with the professional clinical encounter and related matters that tended to ignore larger issues related to human rights. As the only global bioethics body representing 193 member states in the world, the IBC was well placed to attempt the achievement ..