The European Society For Philosophy Of Medicine And Healthcare

VILHJALMUR ÂRNASON
Vilhjalmur Ârnason was born in Neskaupstadur, Iceland, January 6 1953. He has done his doctoral and M.A. studies in philosophy at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana USA (1978-1982). B.A. and a Teacher's Certificate in philosophy and comparative literature at the University of Iceland (1973-1978). His current academic position is Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Centre for Ethics, University of Iceland. Former Academic Positions: Assistant and Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Iceland (1990-1997). Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at Freie Universität and Max-PlanckInstitut für Bildungsforschung in Berlin (1993). Researcher at the Icelandic Science Foundation (1990-1992). Exchange Professor of Philosophy at Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington, USA (1989). Part-time lecturer at the Department of Philosophy, University of Iceland (1983-1988). Fulbright fellow, David Ross Research fellow and Teaching assistant at the Department of Philosophy, Purdue University (1978-1982). Other Professional Experience: Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, University of Iceland (20002002). Chair of the Ethical Council for the National Director of Health (1998-2000). Chair of the Department of Philosophy, University of Iceland (1996-1997). Secretary of the Prime Minister's Committee for the Future Prospects of Icelandic Society, Icelandic Economic Institute (1985-1987). Editorial Work: Editor of Journal of the Icelandic Literary Society (1987-1994). Editor of the Theoretical Classics Series of the Icelandic Literary Society (1997-2001). Member of Editorial Team of Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy since 1998. Current Research Projects and Related Publications: 1. Population genetic databases: Principal scientist of the bioethics research project ELSAGEN: Ethical, Legal and Social Aspects of Human Genetic Databases. A European Comparison. Funded 2002-2004 by EC 5th Framework. Co-ordinator of the network Ethics of Genetic and Medical Information financed between 2002-2004 by NorFA. "Coding and Consent. Moral Challenges of the Database Project in Iceland", Bioethics 18 (2004:1), 39-61. 2. Health care ethics: Ethics of Life and Death. Difficult Decisions in Health Care (book in Icelandic). Reykjavik, 1993. Second revised ed. 2003. Forthcoming in German translation by LIT Verlag 2004. ,ttica y sanidad. Dignidad y diâlogo en la relación asistencial". Laguna. Revista de Filosofia 2004 (forthcoming). 3. Self-determination of the elderly. Autonomy of the Elderly in Nursing Homes. An empirical study and ethical interpretation (book in Icelandic). Co-authored with Astridur Stefansdottir, M.D. Reykjavik 2004. 4. Application of Discourse Ethics. "Diskurs im Kontext", Moral im sozialen Kontext, ed. W. Edelstein and G. N.-Winkler (Suhrkamp 2000), pp. 149-172. See also: http://www.hi.is/~vilhjarn
FRIEDRICH HEUBEL
Friedrich Heubel, born 1933 in Essen, Germany, fled from Danzig 1945. School with Latin and Greek. Doctor of Medicine at Philipps-University of Marburg (1963). Specialized in Neurology and Psychiatry (1968). Heavy work in the administration of the Faculty and the University of Marburg in order to reform them. Moved to pharmacology. Publications on metabolism of foreign compounds (cytochrome P 450). Growing interest in moral philosophy. Finals in Funkkolleg Ethik/Praktische Philosophie. Teaching medical ethics since 1979. Research fellow in Medical ethics in Maastricht 1984. First German member of the ESPMH. Chairperson of the Institutional Review Board of the Faculty of Medicine and data protection officer of the University Klinikum, Marburg (1990-1998). Habilitation (Privatdozent) in Medical Ethics (Title: Tugend and Technik - Virtue and Technology). Publications mainly on ethical problems of the health care system on a Kantian basis. Member of the Akademie fir Ethik in der Medizin (Göttingen). Officially retired since 1998, still working in practical philosophy and teaching
SOREN HOLM
Soren Holm is a Danish medical doctor and philosopher with a Ph.D. and a higher Danish doctorate in medical ethics. He is Professorial Fellow in Bioethics at Cardiff University and Director of the Cardiff Centre for Ethics, Law and Society, as well as Professor of Medical Ethics (part-time) at the Centre for Medical Ethics, University of Oslo. He has previously worked at the University of Copenhagen and the University of Manchester. He has been a member of the ESPMH since 1988 and a board member since 1999. He and his colleagues will, if the members are positive towards the idea, host the 2007 or 2008 ESPMH meeting in Cardiff. He has published widely on issues in both philosophy of medicine and health care ethics, and has research collaborations with individuals and centres in many European countries. From May 2004 he is joint Editor in Chief of the Journal of Medical Ethics.
PIERRE MALLIA
Pierre Mallia has been a member of the ESPMH for over eight years and has organised an annual meeting of the society in Malta in 2002 - the then president calling it one of the best organised in the history of ESPMH. He graduated MD in 1992, MPhil (bioethics) in 1998 and PhD (ethics of genetic testing) in 2004 from the University of Nijmegen. He has published numerous papers many of which with Prof Henk ten Have. He is a member and former secretary of the Malta National Bioethics Consultative Committee and is also a member of the Medical Panel of the Ministry for Social Services. He is a family doctor and is currently serving a three year term as President of the Malta College of Family Doctors where he has created new CME including an international diploma in family health (DFH). He lectures in Medical Law and biomedical ethics within the faculties of law and Medicine & Surgery and also at the Institute of Health Care, at the University of Malta. He has been officially invited abroad to give lectures in bioethics on various occasions, including Cyrup, China (University of Shuzou), Finland (Keynote for Privireal) and the UK, besides presenting papers in many meetings. Pierre is married to Beatrix and has two children, Daniel (3) and Francesca (1). He loves Astronomy and Philosophy and plays the Classic Guitar and tries woodwork rather unsuccessfully! His outlook for the future is to dedicate more time to biomedical ethics with an aim for promoting dialogue between the secular and the more fundamentalist parties, believing that the challenge of the next millennium is learning how to work together in a pluralistic society. His aims for the ESPMH would be to maintain the societies' identity as a more familial networking of young and older scholars, keeping the current journal in place and consolidating a network of people in various work groups. The society is ideal for a station of dialogue in an atmosphere of friendship placed at the cutting edge of European bioethics; ready for challenges across cultures.
ZBIGNIEW SZAWARSKI
Zbigniew Szawarski, philosopher, with particular interest in moral philosophy, philosophy of medicine and medical ethics. Graduated at Warsaw University, 1963. In 1975/6 year scholarship at Oxford University. From 1989 member of the ESPMH. One of the first philosophers in Central and Eastern Europe interested in philosophy of medicine and medical ethics. Former editor of ETYKA. Member of editorial boards of several international journals devoted to medical ethics. Participants of four BIOMED projects. In 1990-99 lecturer at the Centre for Philosophy and Health Care, the University of Wales Swansea. Three books and numerous articles in medical ethics. From 1999 Professor of Moral Philosophy at the Institute of Philosophy, Warsaw University.
TUIJA TAKALA
Tuija Takala, MSc (soc) (Helsinki, Finland), LicSc (soc) (Turku, Finland), PhD (Turku, Finland) is Lecturer in Bioethics at the University of Manchester, U.K. and Docent in Practical Philosophy at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Dr. Takala's research interests lie in the philosophical analysis of bioethical arguments and concepts, and she has a special interest in issues related to genetic information, consent, autonomy and paternalism. Her publications include contributions to Bioethics; Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics; Journal of Medical Ethics; Journal of Medicine and Philosophy; Medicine, Healthcare and Philosophy; Perspectivas Bioéticas; Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics; Western Journal of Medicine and the book Scratching the Surface of Bioethics (ed. with M. Hdyry) (New York and Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2003). Dr. Takala is the chair of the editorial board of the Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, co-editor of the Values in Bioethics special book series (Rodopi) and member of the editorial board of the Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics.
EUGENIJUS GEFENAS
Eugenijus Gefenas was born in Vilnius, Lithuania in 1959. In 1983 he graduated from Medical Faculty of Vilnius University. He obtained his Ph.D. from the Institute of Philosophy, Sociology and Law in 1993. At present Dr. Eugenijus Gefenas is an associate professor and director of the Department of Medical History and Ethics at the Medical Faculty of Vilnius University and an adjunct professor in the Center for Bioethics and Clinical leadership of the Graduate College of Union University (USA) where he is a co-director of the Advanced Certificate Program in Research Ethics in Central and Eastern Europe. He is also a chairman of Lithuanian Bioethics Committee. His international activities include the membership in the Council of Europe Bioethics Committee (CDBI), International Bioethics Committee of UNESCO (IBC) as well as European Society for Philosophy of Medicine and Health Care. During the period of 2000-2004 he was a member of the European committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The areas of his professional interest include such issues as teaching and development of bioethics in the transition society, ethical and philosophical problems of biomedical research, ethical aspects of health care reform and resource allocation as well as other bioethical issues.
GERRIT KIMSMA
Gerrit K.Kimsma, 63, married to Marga Winants, two daughters, age 31 and 27. University associate in medicine and philosophy, practicing family medicine since 1976 and teaching medical ethics and philosophy to medical students and medical ethics to Post Graduate Training for Family Medicine at the Vrije Universiteit at Amsterdam since 1970. Publications since 1975 in numbers of about 100 articles in journals, books and papers, about 60 presentations in Europe (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, France), USA and Australia.
Book publications since 1987, starting with ‘Medicine between Dream and Drama’,(with HAMJ ten Have), last major book publication with Thomasma, Kushner and Ciesielski called ‘Asking to Die. Inside the Dutch Euthanasia Debate.’, Kluwer Academic Publications, Dordrecht/London/Boston, 1998, with ethical and legal discussions, interviews with families where euthanasia took place, and interviews with physicians who describe their experiences)
Past or present functions, amongst others:
1. President of the Dutch Society for Philosophy and Medicine (1981-1988),
2. Co-founder and Treasurer European Society for Philosophy of Medicine and Health Care, 1987- present.
3. Member of the Ethics Committee of the Royal Dutch Medical Society, 1986- 1998.
4. Member of the Research Review Committee, Academic Hospital Vrije Universiteit, 1986-present.
5. Associate-Editor of the journal ‘Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics’.
Present additional scientific advisory functions:
1. Co-editor of the edition ‘Ethics and Law in Medicine’,
2. Board Member of ‘Cambridge Quarterly of Health Care Ethics,
3. Board Member of ‘Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy. A European Journal’
4. Board Member of ‘International Library of Law and the New Medicine’.
5. Board Member International Dictionary of Bioethics, Cambridge University Press
Present involvement in the Dutch euthanasia climate:
1. Teacher of Sterbehilfe and euthanasia programs at the Vrije Universiteit for interns and postgraduate family medicine physicians
2. member of the Amsterdam Program of Support and Consultation Euthanasia Amsterdam (SCEA) since 1997 (for the legally required second opinions)
3. Program developer and instructor of the Support Consultation Euthanasia Netherlands (SCEN), supported by the Dutch Ministry of Health Care and the Dutch Medical Society, to develop regional networks of qualified consultants for euthanasia requests.
4. Member of one of the five law based institutional Regional Euthanasia Evaluation Committees, of the Committee of South-Holland/Zeeland.