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Participants in the debate listening to Salvador Macip's talk. Image / PCB.
 15.05.2024

The scientific and teaching communities debate the new bioethical challenges of science

The Barcelona Science Park, in collaboration with the Víctor Grífols i Lucas Foundation and as part of the RESSÒ programme, organised the bioethical debate ‘Cap a on ha d’anar la humanitat?’, with the participation of teaching staff from education centres all over Catalonia and research staff from public and private entities installed at the Park.

Maria Terrades, director of the Barcelona Science Park, welcomed the participants and explained that the aim of this debate was to learn to reflect on and investigate our own values and limits, in order to understand the importance of the social changes made possible by scientific advances. According to Terrades, these advances have a lot to do with us and our future and stretch far beyond the laboratory room.

Núria Terribas, CEO of the Víctor Grifols i Lucas Foundation and a leader in the mission to promote bioethics through dialogue between specialists from different areas of knowledge, emphasised the importance of establishing spaces for dialogue between the scientific community and the teaching in order to generate new synergies that allow the incorporation of bioethical reflection in the field of biomedicine among the youngest.

Also present at the event was Salvador Macip, doctor, researcher, writer, science populiser, dean of the UOC Faculty of Health Sciences, full professor of Molecular Medicine at the University of Leicester and collaborator with the Grifols Foundation.

Macip created a work dynamic from which to reflect on and position the four cases put up for debate: children on demand, synthetic biology, human enhancement and doping.

More than 40 people from education centres throughout Catalonia and research staff from some of the public and private entities that call the PCB home worked on the dynamic to reflect on bioethical ramifications when carrying out scientific dissemination, each from their own professional area of activity.

This activity is part of the PCB’s RESSÒ programme, which seeks to establish spaces for society,educational community and research staf so that they can actively collaborate in order to awaken a critical spirit and an interest in scientific careers among young people. The programme is backed by FECYT, the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology of the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, and the Barcelona City Council.

Photo: From left to right, Núria Terribas, Salvador Macip and Maria Terrades. Photo / Parc Científic de Barcelona.