International moot at UHS begins: Medical profession facing many ethical challenges

Speakers at a moot here Monday discussed issues and challenges in medical profession and called for giving due regard to ethics in medical field. They were speaking at a two-day moot on medical ethics, organized by the UHS in collaboration with the Centre of Biomedical Ethics and Culture (CBEC), SIUT, Karachi with the theme "Ethics in challenging Times."
Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) Chairman Professor Dr Mohammad Nizamuddin in his presidential address said the medical profession is at crossroads facing many ethical challenges in its practice. "It is a fact that cannot be ignored that there is increasing dissatisfaction on the part of patients who are expecting more and more from the doctors", he said. Professor Nizamuddin maintained that medical fraternity is becoming more and more dependent on technology thus becoming more impersonal. "The fundamental values of medicine insist that doctor's obligation is to keep the patient's interest above everything else," he viewed.
He further said that ethics is the basic requirement in every profession but medicine should take a lead in it. UHS vice-chancellor, Professor Dr Junaid Sarfraz Khan said that important issues of autonomy, confidentiality, justice, beneficence, and non-maleficence are key factors that should guide the daily decision making by doctors. The coordinator of the conference, UHS Allied Health Sciences' department head, Dr Saqib Mahmood said the basic objective of the moot was to deliberate upon the current status of ethics in medical practice in Pakistan and to raise awareness about the principles of clinical and biomedical research ethics.
On the first day, Professor Alastair Campbell of National University of Singapore gave a presentation on "Bioethics in Asia: the Challenges"; Professor Farhat Moazam, Chairperson of Centre of Biomedical Ethics and Culture, SIUT, Karachi spoke on "Bioethics: Indigenizing a Foreign Construct"; Professor Aamir Jafarey of CBEC Karachi on "Bioethics comes to Pakistan-Focus on Capacity Enhancement; Dr Faisal Rasheed Khan from Isra University on "Turning training into practice"; Professor Dr Mowadat H. Rana gave a presentation on "Beauty is truth, truth beauty: Aesthetics and Medical Ethics"; and, UHS VC Professor Junaid Sarfraz Khan spoke on "Using caricature/videos and images to raise medical professionalism and ethics awareness."