Islamic Code of Ethics Includes Therapeutic Cloning

SciDev.Net reports on the new Islamic code of medical ethics up for a vote:

Muslim states are being asked to allow the cloning of human embryos for research into possible medical treatments — so-called therapeutic cloning — while maintaining a ban on the reproductive cloning of human beings. Both provisions are included in the draft text of what is being proposed as the first international Islamic code of medical and health ethics, approved during the eighth conference of the Islamic Organization for Medical Sciences (IOMS), held in Cairo last month. The proposed code addresses the relationships between physicians, their patients, and wider society from the perspectives of both Islam and medical ethics. It takes into account Islamic views on new medical techniques such as in vitro fertilisation and gene therapy.

Major Islamic Bioethics Program

UVA has trained Dr. Farhat Moazam, a pediatric surgeon, has completed training at University of Virginia in bioethics through UVA's incredibly influential religious studies-based doctoral program. Farhat returns to Pakistan to direct the Centre of Biomedical Ethics and Culture at the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation in Karachi. The Center will be creating a new Masters program and will continue to work with faculty at UVA including Paul Lombardo and Jonathan Moreno, and will be sponsoring a major week-long Islamic Bioethics meeting in April. [thanks Jon Moreno]