Indian bishops set up bioethics forum

By Stephen Alathara

Bengaluru: The Conference of Catholic Bishops’ of India (CCBI) has established a Bioethics Forum and appointed Father Christopher Vimalraj from the Archdiocese of Bangalore as its first director.

Bioethics is generally understood to refer to the ethical implications and applications of the health-related life sciences.

The decision to establish the Bioethics Forum was taken during the 87th Executive Committee meeting of the CCBI, held September 20-21.

The forum will work under the CCBI Commission for Theology and Doctrine.

Jesuit Archbishop Felix Toppo of Ranchi, chairman of the CCBI Commission for Theology and Doctrine, will be head the forum.

The forum is a consultative forum that engages with moral questions arising in clinical practice, biomedical research and public policy on healthcare issues, through a person-centered bioethical approach.

The forum will engage in scholarly dialogue with healthcare workers, bioethicists, lawyers and theologians. It will also seek to study the implications of the teachings of the Catholic Church for the fields of medical practice and public policy.

The CCBI had come up with a bioethics document concerning the Covid vaccine—“A Catholic Ethical Response to Questions about Covid-19 Vaccines”—on February 11 last. It was internationally appreciated.

Father Vimalraj is a moral theologian and an adjunct professor of Bioethics, Division of Health and Humanities, St. John’s National Institute of Health Sciences, Bengaluru. He is also a member of the Institutional Ethics Committee at St. John’s Medical College and the Indian Council of Medical Research, Bangalore.

He holds a doctorate in moral theology from the Accademia Alfonsiana, Rome. He took a master’s degree in Bioethics from the Gemelli Medical College, Rome.

He was born on October 23, 1967, and ordained a priest on July 11, 2007. He is currently the director of St. Germain Academy, Bengaluru.