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Revista Latinoamericana de Bioética

Print version ISSN 1657-4702On-line version ISSN 2462-859X

rev.latinoam.bioet. vol.25 no.1 Bogotá Jan./June 2025  Epub May 08, 2025

https://doi.org/10.18359/rlbi.7846 

Editorial

XI International Bioethics Congress. Human fragility: transdisciplinary perspectives and challenges for peace

Fabio Garzón-Díaz* 

* Editor de la Revista Latinoamericana de Bioética. Profesor asociado de la Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, Bogotá, Colombia. Correo: revista.bioetica@unimilitar.edu.co ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7125-4209


From November 13 to 15, 2024, the PhD Program in Bioethics at the Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, located in Bogotá, Colombia, organized the XI International Bioethics Congress titled Human fragility: transdisciplinary perspectives and challenges for peace. The event was held at the Serrezuela Theater in the city of Cartagena de Indias, DT. Colombia. The main goal of the congress was to reflect on new transdisciplinary perspectives that can contribute to national, continental and global peace, emphasizing the challenges of pursuing bioethics in the context of human fragility.

A total of 560 professionals from fifteen countries and eighty public and private institutions representing eleven fields of knowledge participated in the event. The congress featured several notable initiatives, including the opening of two international bioethics chairs (one in Rome and the other in Brasilia), twelve thematic panels, sixty-four oral presentations, and eight posters. In addition, the congress awarded four doctorates (Doctor honoris causa) in Bioethics for: Volnei Garrafa (Brazil); Adela Cortina (Spain); Henk ten Have (Netherlands), y Carlos Alberto Rincón Arango (Colombia).

Finally, the Bioethics Declaration of Cartagena de Indias 2024 was publicly presented, and this document is now available in English, Portuguese, and French.

Bioethics Declaration Cartagena de Indias, 2024

For the recognition of our inherent human fragility, the protection of human and cultural diversity, the promotion of inter and transdisciplinary knowledge, and the strengthening of bioethics education aimed at the care of life, global sustainability, and peace.

In Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, we gathered on November 13, 14 and 15, 2024, for the XI International Bioethics Congress titled Human fragility: transdisciplinary perspectives and challenges for peace, organized by the PhD Program in Bioethics at the Universidad Militar Nueva Granada. This meeting represented a national, international, pluralistic, and democratic perspective, with the participation of a significant number of civilians, women and men of science, members of the productive sector, and delegates of the Colombian State.

In adhesion to:

  • Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948

  • American Convention of Human Rights 1969

  • The Belmont Report (1979) from the European council 1997

  • Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights (UNESCO, 1997)

  • Oviedo Convention (1997)

  • Manzanillo Declaration 1996 (checked in 1998)

  • Declaration of Ethical Principles in relation to Climate Change (2017)

  • The Panama letter 2000

  • Gijon Bioethics Declaration and Human Rights (World Congress of Bioethics, 2000)

  • Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (UNESCO, 2005)

  • Cartagena de Indias Declaration for Governance, the construction of AI ecosystems and the promotion of AI education in an Ethical and Responsible manner in Latin America and the Caribbean (Colombia, 2024)

  • Declaration of Helsinki (75 version, Finland, 2024)

  • Declaration of the world coalition for peace with nature: a call for life (Santiago de Cali, Colombia, 2024)

Guided by values such as dignity, freedom, equity, inclusion, and respect for human rights and nature -and by principles such as justice, responsibility, care, prevention, solidarity, empathy, and creativity we reaffirm the fundamental pillars for building peace among human and non-human beings, for ensuring planetary sustainability.

Accordingly, we reflected on the fragility of life in all its manifestations, recognizing its inseparable connection to life as a whole. In light of the current civilizational crisis, the axiological dismantling of changing societies, poverty, social inequity, hunger, unemployment, migration, environmental disasters, the emergence of new social actors, and increasing cultural diversity -along with the potential collapse of both humanity and the planet due to geopolitical tensions that could lead to a third world war, the rapid advances in biomedicine, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and disruptive technologies, and the sustainable or unsustainable use of the planets resources- we acknowledge the urgent need for ethical reflection and action.

We declare

the necessity of

  1. Respect life, dignity and inclusion for all living beings, and safeguarding collective and environmental rights for both human and non-human beings -those of the present and future generations- as fundamental pillars for peaceful coexistence between humanity and nature.

  2. Acknowledge the fragility of human and non-human beings, and the biosphere, not as a weakness, but as a constitutive aspect of existence, one that must be protected, respected, and transcended.

  3. Promote interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches to knowledge, understanding the complexity of reality and addressing current challenges that affect life in the biosphere, which require solutions beyond traditional disciplinary methods.

  4. Guarantee the right to access healthcare as an essential component of bioethics, recognizing the interdependence among health, human rights, and social perspectives for the well-being of future generations.

  5. Include health as a fundamental element in the entire web of life, essential for building stable and lasting peaceful societies.

  6. Establish principles that ensure access to healthcare services, prioritizing historically marginalized and oppressed societies.

  7. Implement ethical and bioethical research standards that safeguard scientific integrity and uphold the rights of humans, nature, and the dignity of participants in all research processes.

  8. Promote educational environments where ethics, bioethics, and scientific integrity are integrated into the training and practice of researchers, with a strong emphasis on social responsibility and the impact of research on society and ecosystems.

  9. Create mechanisms that promote cooperation between nations and organizations to address issues related to health and peace.

  10. Incorporate bioethics principles into health policies, supporting the interdependence between human well-being and environmental health for humans, non-humans, and the biosphere.

  11. Conduct a systematic review of productive and extractive economic models that contribute to environmental degradation and jeopardize life in the biosphere.

  12. Recognize that mental and physical health are inseparables, and that both must be cared for together. We must awaken to nurture the joy of life and the pleasure of living.

  13. Establish public policies in multidimensional preventive healthcare that address challenges such as the consumption of industrialized foods, sedentary lifestyles caused by teleworking, and the high incidence of infectious diseases.

  14. Adopt a regulatory framework with ethical and bioethical guidelines for advancements in science, technology and innovation, ensuring transparency, privacy, responsibility, and particulary, the proper regulation of algorithms and devices based on Artificial Intelligence (AI).

  15. Recognize AI as a service tool for present and future generations, ensuring its use promotes peace, social justice and respect for human dignity and diversity.

  16. Promote ethical and bioethical reflection in professional practice, encouraging disciplinary self-regulation and deep analysis within scientific communities regarding the implications of AI and emerging technologies.

  17. Guarantee the inclusion of marginalized social groups -those in condition of heightened fragility and vulnerability- in the elaboration of social politics, ensuring their voices and needs are heard, and their rights respected in a democracy of opportunities.

  18. Implement bioethics education at all academic levels, promoting awareness of the axiological dimension of research, knowledge, health, daily life, and ecosystems.

  19. Adopt environmental protection and ecosystem restoration policies based on bioethical principles.

  20. Develop policies for forest and water conservation, reforestation and biodiversity protection, aimed not just to mitigate and halt environmental damage but also at caring for and regenerating affected areas.

  21. Reduce the consumption of products associated with deforestation and biodiversity loss.

  22. Encourage the production and consumption of lower-impact goods to prevent further harm to ecosystems, recognizing the ecological, carbon, and digital footprints as interconnected aspects of the same global problem.

  23. Establish peace as a fundamental right of nature, to be promoted and protected through public policies and bioethical practices.

  24. Improve and diversify pedagogical and didactic methods for bioethics education, considering ethnic, cultural, gender, sexual, and biological diversity, and connecting learning processes with contextual needs and social actors.

  25. Recognize the interconnection of human beings with nature and social systems, promoting a paradigm beyond the anthropocentrism, in which all living beings are valued with equal dignity.

  26. Include non-western worldviews, along with their spiritual knowledge and ancestral wisdom, encouraging discussions that honor cultural diversity and diverse understandings in the pursuit and implementation of peace.

  27. Promote a transdisciplinary approach to developing complex bioethics studies, enabling the analysis of interdependence between biological and cultural ecosystems.

The present declaration was signed in the city of Cartagena de Indias, Touristic and Cultural District of Colombia, during the XI International Bioethics congress titled Human fragility: transdisciplinary perspectives and challenges for peace, the day of November 15, 2024.

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