The Salim El-Hoss Bioethics and Professionalism Program (SHBPP) at the American University of Beirut Faculty of Medicine (FM) and Medical Center (AUBMC) held the first Bioethics Multimedia Film Festival in the entire Arab Region, on May 20, 2015 at the Issam Fares Lecture Hall, with the goal of educating and empowering individuals about bioethics.
Dr. Thalia Arawi, Founding Director of SHBPP, focused in her opening speech on the importance of bioethics issues. Arawi said, “Bioethics issues are issues that we cannot afford to brush aside any longer. They are part of the lives of the public, not only the clinician or the scientist.”
The festival brought together doctors, students, parents and members of our community who enjoyed watching the end productions of AUB FM third year medical students as part of their Physicians, Patients and Society Course. Students showcased the top ten bioethics projects which covered issues like pediatric clinical trials, competition in medical schools, patients’ non-compliance, breaking bad news, teaching hospitals, cryopreservation of embryos, hymenoplasty and several bioethical scenarios on research transplants. The submissions ,edutainment games, will be used as bioethics teaching tools at AUBMC and later will be disseminated in Lebanon, the Arab Region as well as internationally.
