The Professional Ethics Platform within the Department of Moral Theology at the Faculty of Theology (UM) is organising an International Bioethics Conference on ‘Bioethics and the five senses: between clinical practice and metaphors’ (La Bioetica ed i Cinque Sensi: tra Clinica Pratica e Metafore), which will be held online between Thursday 1 and Sunday 4 October 2020.

Organised by Rev. Dr Ray Zammit (UM) and Prof. Pietro Grassi (Rome), this conference intends to address bioethical issues by focusing on the human aspect of health care through a reflection on the five senses which constitute our first mediation with the world. Hearing, seeing, smelling, touching and tasting, in fact, are productive processes which have the ability to transform the world.

The conference will be addressed by about 40 academics, hailing from Malta, Italy, France, Switzerland, Tunisia and Brazil, whose specialisation ranges from medicine, to pharmacy, anthropology, philosophy, psychology and theology. The speakers will reflect on the possible role of the senses as the foundation and basis of treatment and clinical practice itself. Indeed, a refocus on the senses could be the privileged way to face existence and the central issues of our relationship with technological progress.

This academic event is part of the Day of Awakening 2020 programme organised by the Centre for the Study and Research on Coma, Casa dei Risvegli Luca De Nigris (Bologna) which is promoting the event in Italy. It is also being promoted by the Ufficio Nazionale per la Pastorale della Salute of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, as well as the Order of Malta Maltese Association.

Register for the international conference which can be followed in English or in Italian, or contact Rev. Dr Ray Zammit (convenor).