The Southeast Asia Bioethics Network is pleased to invite you to our upcoming webinar titled “The Price of Growth: Ethical Reflections on Treating Genetic Differences.”

This session will feature Kathryn Guo, Visiting Student Researcher at the National University of Singapore and a fourth-year student at the University of Chicago, who will explore the ethical dimensions surrounding vosoritide, the first drug developed to address the genetic cause of achondroplasia.

Hosted by Dr. Serene Ong, this talk will examine questions of autonomy, disability identity, distributive justice, and cultural perspectives on medical innovation across Southeast Asia.

Exploring the human dimensions of illness.

Experiential workshops in Poetry, Dance & Film.

Student Showcase.

The Asian Bioethics Network Conference 2025 will be held on 23 to 24 October 2025, at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, Singapore.

This conference brings together bioethics leaders from 15 member states across Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. It features keynote talks and networking opportunities.

Conference Theme

Navigating the Ethical Maze for Tomorrow’s Medicine

1. Ethics in Healthcare Digitalisation and Emerging Technologies
2. Ethics of Longevity
3. Ethics in Mainstream Medical Practice and Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine (TCIM)

Conference Objectives

1. Identify new strategic areas for bioethics review
2. Share knowledge among established bioethics bodies
3. Showcase regional research and foster collaboration
4. Strengthen capacity building through expert exchange

Who Should Attend

All healthcare professionals, including medical, dental, nursing, pharmacy and allied health practitioners. Healthcare administrators, policymakers, academics and other professionals with an interest in healthcare law and ethics.

Registration is closed.

The replication crisis refers to the growing awareness that many scientific studies—especially in psychology, biomedicine, and social science—fail to replicate when repeated. This workshop aims to educate participants on issues of reproducibility and systemic challenges in research, while equipping them with practical tools to address these problems. Participants will hear from experts in the field and engage in hands-on skill-building activities.

Who should attend 

Researchers (in medicine, science, social sciences, psychology), IRB members and secretariat, research office professionals, academics, healthcare professionals, research funders, policymakers, and students.

This event is by invitation only

This workshop will bring together key experts to discuss methodological innovations and developments in bioethics–encompassing both general methodological discussions (for instance, about the role of empirical investigation in bioethics), and discussions of specific methods (for instance, collective reflective equilibrium in practice).

Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation, first published in 1975, triggered the modern animal rights movement, as well as launching animal ethics as a key part of the contemporary study of applied ethics.  Singer will speak about why our current attitudes to, and treatment of, animals are ethically indefensible and akin to racism and sexism. He will also review changes in our attitudes to animals, and our treatment of them, over the past fifty years.

Speaker: Professor Peter Singer, VK Rajah Visiting Professor 

This event is open to NUS staff and students only.

This round table discussion will focus on answering this overall question through discussion and debate, with opportunities for audience participation. The panel, to be chaired By Professor Angus Dawson, will consist of:

• Professor Peter Singer, VK Rajah Visiting Professor (NUS)
• Associate Professor Nicola Siew Pei Ngiam (NUS)
• Dr Ann Toh (NUS)

This workshop is by invitation only.

Digital duplicates are AI built representations of people, trained on personal texts, images, and choices so they can speak, decide, and create in ways that resemble real persons. The Digital Duplicates Workshop brings together researchers across philosophy, bioethics and tech to ask what these new technologies mean in real life.

Topics include griefbots and memorialization, prediction of preferences in intensive care, decision aids for dementia patients, authorship and accountability, avatars in democratic life, the moral status of duplicates, and questions of agency, identity, and responsibility.

Contributors come from the National University of Singapore, Duke University, Duke Kunshan University, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Bentley University, University of Bucharest, University of Oxford, University of Aberdeen, University of California Riverside, University of Twente, and Delft University of Technology.

The workshop is co-sponsored by the EARP Lab through Experimental Bioethics and Relational Moral Psychology NUS Startup Grant, and by the European Union ERC avataResponsibility (project no. 101117761).

This workshop is by invitation only.

The Centre for Biomedical Ethics (CBmE) at the National University of Singapore is proud to host the first neuroethics workshop in Singapore, a full-day event that brings together international leaders in neuroscience, psychiatry, and ethics. Taking place on 3 September 2025 at the Park Rochester Hotel, this workshop explores the ethical challenges raised by rapid advances in brain science and mental health care across Asia and beyond.

The programme features distinguished speakers, including Prof. Walter Sinnott-Armstrong (Duke & Oxford) delivering the keynote lecture Why Are People Immoral?, and Prof. Soraj Hongladarom (Chulalongkorn University) with the closing lecture Buddhist Enlightenment through Pharmaceuticals?. Additional highlights include talks on the ethics of griefbots, relational approaches to psychopharmacology, and critical issues in neurointervention and mental healthcare in Singapore.

Participants will also hear lightning talks from leading scholars in Japan, China, and Singapore, engage in a panel discussion with local clinicians and ethicists, and gain insights into the latest updates from CBmE. The workshop will conclude with a forward-looking discussion on future collaborations through the Oxford-NUS Centre for Neuroethics (OCNS) and the Asian Pacific Neuroethics Association (APNA).

This landmark event offers a rare opportunity to engage with cutting-edge debates, expand networks across disciplines, and help shape the future of neuroethics in Asia.

By invitation only.

The dates and topics for each unit are as follows:
2 Sep 2025: Unit 1 – Ethical reasoning, ethical guidance & relationship with professionals
9 Sep 2025: Unit 2 – Elements of decision-making (Part 1): autonomy, informed consent, truth telling, decision-making capacity and best interests
16 Sep 2025: Unit 3 – Elements of decision-making (Part 2): shared decision-making, end of life decision-making, advance care planning and non-beneficial treatment
23 Sep 2025: Unit 4 – Health law, defensive medicine and therapeutic innovations

The Executive Certificate in Healthcare Law and Ethics is designed to equip participants with the skills of critical thinking  and  analysis  so  they  may  apply  bioethical  and  legal  principles  to  various  healthcare  issues  in  practice.

The course comprises two modules HLE5101 and HLE5102.  Students must complete both modules to be awarded this Executive Certificate in Healthcare Law and Ethics.

Registration is by invitation only

The AISG expert workshop will bring together investigators and collaborators of the AISG project “Developing a Trust Framework for Artificial Intelligence in Emergency Healthcare”. Members of CBmE and Duke-NUS are also welcome. The aim of this workshop is for team members to share their existing work and projects related to the grant, as well as to facilitate discussions on future research directions. The programme of the workshop will include presentations from participants, and discussion sessions to chart out research priorities.

Registration for this event is by invitation only

This half-day workshop offers members of Clinical Ethics Committees (CECs) a structured approach to analysing complex clinical ethics cases using ethical frameworks. Through a combination of expert-led discussions and guided small group activities, participants will deepen their understanding of ethical reasoning in clinical settings and enhance their committee’s capacity for case analysis.

This event seeks to gather Singapore-based scholars and practitioners in philosophical bioethics to explore recent developments and future directions in the field. Topics include clinical ethics, public health ethics, bioethics at the population level, research ethics, neuroethics, reproductive ethics, and AI ethics. 

Abstract
This talk presents one particular conception of egalitarianism, which I call Equality as Comparative Fairness, and discusses various important issues regarding the relation between equality, health, and health care. Among the issues discussed are the role that health should play in thinking about equality and vice versa; the importance of giving weight to both equality of wellbeing and equality of opportunity; the relation between equality of opportunity and the “first come, first served” principle in the delivery of health care; and the relations between equality, fairness, luck, individual responsibility, and rationing in the context of scarce medical resources. The talk illuminates the appeal of certain egalitarian considerations, as well as the possible relevance and implications of those considerations for health, health policy, and the distribution of health care.

Biography
Larry S. Temkin is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, at Rutgers. He graduated number one from the University of Wisconsin/Madison, before pursuing graduate studies at Oxford and Princeton. Temkin is the author of Inequality, Rethinking the Good: Moral Ideals and the Nature of Practical Reasoning, and Being Good in a World of Need. Temkin delivered Oxford’s 2017 Uehiro Lectures, and has lectured for the World Health Organization, the World Bank, the NIH, and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Temkin’s individualistic approach to inequality has been adopted by the World Health Organization and the Gates Foundation in measuring the Global Burden of Disease. Temkin has received fellowships from Harvard’s Safra Center for Ethics, All Souls College, the NIH, the ANU, the National Humanities Center, the Danforth Foundation, Corpus Christi College Oxford, and Princeton’s Center for Human Values, where he was Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching.

The Ethinar will describe the diverse trajectories and outcomes of gender development and explore possible ethical management frameworks.

Registration for this event is now closed

This workshop is not open to members of the public

This workshop is for Neurosurgeons, neurologists, psychiatrists, ethicists, legal scholars, policymakers, and other relevant stakeholders. 
The workshop will explore the latest advancements in Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) for psychiatric conditions and disorders of consciousness, with a strong focus on both innovation and ethical considerations. Through in-depth case studies, we will examine the use of DBS in treating depression, OCD, and anorexia nervosa. Participants will hear from leading experts and pioneers in the field—both from Singapore and abroad—alongside a powerful firsthand account from a patient who has undergone DBS. Our goal is to develop clinically practical and ethically sound guidelines, with the potential to align with the ongoing work of the Academy of Medicine’s College of Psychiatrists in this space.

Abstract

William Gibson is reported to have said that “the future is already here – it’s just not very evenly distributed.” With survey results showing widespread use of LLMs in both scholarly writings and peer review, the point appears apt to academic contexts.

Just two years ago, a talk on the ethics of LLM use in academia would have touched upon important yet well-known issues: biases, hallucinations, the impact on publish-or-perish dynamics, and similar concerns. We might have even debated whether these models should be used at all. Today, however, a different set of questions appears more relevant. With sakana.ai claiming to have published the first fully AI-generated paper that passed peer review, and evidence indicating that LLM performance on complex cognitive tasks doubles approximately every seven months, we must now seriously consider what happens as LLMs begin fully automating first specific parts of academic processes, and eventually academia as a whole. Traditional notions of merit, evaluation, production, peer review, and grant applications may soon lose their meaning or ecological validity. Those who master these changes stand to benefit immensely, while those who do not risk being left behind. We face the prospect of a digital divide so significant that it evokes Nick Agar’s concerns regarding enhancement potentially leading to two separate human species. How should we navigate this transition?

Drawing on our work with AUTOGEN, ensemble workflow methods, proposed guidelines for the ethical use of LLMs, the complexities of assigning credit and blame in AI-assisted work, and related efforts, this talk outlines the current technological capacities and the state of the ongoing ethical debate. However, its primary focus is on exploring deeper questions about the future of scientific progress and academic labor.

Speaker
Dr Sebastian Porsdam Mann

Discussant
Prof Simon Chesterman

Abstract

Advances in reproductive technologies, particularly Preimplantation Genetic Testing (PGT), have enabled prospective parents to make more informed decisions about improving their future children’s health outcomes. While the use of PGT to identify severe medical conditions enjoys broad public support, its application for selecting non-medical traits, such as intelligence or antisocial traits or personality characteristics, remains ethically contentious and raises complex psychological questions. Existing research suggests limited public willingness to test for non-medical traits; however, little is known about how such information, if provided, influences embryo selection decisions. This presentation reports findings from studies exploring public preferences for polygenic screening in embryos, showing that while participants favour testing for medical conditions, information about non-medical traits nonetheless significantly influences their decisions. Additionally, we introduce a novel online platform designed to explore how people navigate complex ethical decisions with a potential reach to millions of public preferences.

Speaker

Edmond Awad is a Senior Research Fellow at The Uehiro Oxford Institute at University of Oxford (secondment from University of Exeter). Concurrently, Edmond is a Senior Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in the Department of Economics and the Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Exeter. In addition, Edmond is an Associate Research Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. Formerly, Edmond was a Postdoctoral Associate at MIT Media Lab (2017-2019). In 2016, Edmond led the design, development, and research of Moral Machine, a website that gathers human decisions on moral dilemmas faced by driverless cars. The website has been visited by over 10 million users, who contributed their judgements on 100 million dilemmas. Edmond’s work appeared in major academic journals, including Nature, PNAS, and Nature Human Behaviour, and it has been covered in major media outlets including The Associated Press and The New York Times.

By Invitation only

The dates and topics for each unit are as follows:

7 February 2025: Unit 3 – Elements of decision-making (Part 2): shared decision-making, end of life decision-making, advance care planning and non-beneficial treatment

21 February 2025: Unit 4 – Health law, defensive medicine and therapeutic innovations

By invitation only.

The dates and topics for each unit are as follows:

10 January 2025: Unit 1 – Ethical reasoning, ethical guidance & relationship with professionals

24 January 2025: Unit 2 – Elements of decision-making (Part 1): autonomy, informed consent, truth telling, decision-making capacity and best interests

Surgical innovation promises significant advancements in patient care but also introduces complex ethical and legal challenges. This workshop brings together experts in bioethics, law, and medicine to explore these challenges and provide frameworks for responsible innovation.

The workshop will delve into the ethical dilemmas and patient safety considerations of introducing new surgical techniques. Participants will gain insights into ensuring informed consent, the importance of professional consensus, and balancing the ethical duty to innovate with legal obligations. By examining case studies and expert frameworks, attendees will be equipped with the knowledge and tools needed to navigate the ethical and legal landscapes of surgical innovation, ensuring both patient safety and the advancement of medical practices.

2024 Asian Paediatric Ethics Conference

Ethical Imperatives in Child Health

Jointly organised by Precision Health Research, Singapore (PRECISE) and the International Health Cohorts Consortium (IHCC), the conference will bring together some 600 thought leaders, clinicians, scientists, biotechs, and patient advocacy associations from across the world who are at the forefront of precision medicine and public health innovation.

Themed “From Cohorts to Clinics: The New Landscape of Global Healthcare”, the conference seeks to address the challenges and opportunities in translating advances in precision medicine into tangible enhancements in patient care and reshape the landscape of modern healthcare. It also aims to catalyse and promote cross-population cohort research and design cross-cohort pilot projects to address various global challenges.

The three-day conference will be held on-site from 21 to 23 August 2024 in Singapore.

By Invitation only

In light of the advent of generative AI and other recent technological advancements, this workshop aims to explore the ethical concerns surrounding two main topics: using artificial intelligence (AI) in the consent process, and the risks involved in clinicals trials.

This 3.5-day programme is designed to train nurses who are interested to be Educators to train their nursing colleagues in the Healthcare Ethics, Law and Professionalism Programme. Nurses who complete this course will form the cadre who can lead the training of their nursing colleagues in the 1-day Core Module in Healthcare Ethics, Law and Professionalism. The course objectives are aligned to the Core Competencies for Healthcare Professionals in Clinical Ethics crafted by the MOH-appointed National Ethics Capability Committee (NECC) to enhance the capacity of healthcare professionals (including nurses) in clinical ethics.

The first course on The Ethics of Families in Ageing Societies explores the ethical aspects of the important role that the family unit plays in an ageing society.  Learners will examine how family values intersect with societal norms, and the variety of roles of the family in the health and social care of the elderly person.

The second course on The Ethics of Communities and Cultures in Ageing explores the ethical aspects of the role of the community and culture in an ageing society.  Learners will examine the interplay between ethics and different sets of cultural values, and consider how changing cultural norms impact the life of the elderly person.

These courses are led by an educator with extensive teaching and research experience in the areas of ageing and end-of-life, and will be delivered through a combination of recorded lectures and ‘live’ online sessions.

Asian Paediatric Ethics Network (APEN) of the Paediatric Ethics Programme at the Centre for Biomedical Ethics will be conducting a Webinar on ‘Promoting health in the sexually active teenager – An ethical perspective’.

No registration required.

Talk by Professor Peter Singer

Speaker’s Biography

Peter Singer has been bestowed the tag of “world’s most influential living philosopher” by journalists. He was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1946, and educated at the University of Melbourne and the University of Oxford. After teaching in England, the United States and Australia, he has, since 1999, been Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. He first became well-known internationally after the publication of Animal Liberation in 1975. Some of his other well-known books are: Practical Ethics, The Expanding Circle, How Are We to Live?, Rethinking Life and Death, Pushing Time Away, The Life You Can Save, The Point of View of the Universe (co-authored with Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek), Ethics in the Real World, and Why Vegan?

Talk by Professor Peter Singer

Speaker’s Biography

Peter Singer has been bestowed the tag of “world’s most influential living philosopher” by journalists. He was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1946, and educated at the University of Melbourne and the University of Oxford. After teaching in England, the United States and Australia, he has, since 1999, been Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. He first became well-known internationally after the publication of Animal Liberation in 1975. Some of his other well-known books are: Practical Ethics, The Expanding Circle, How Are We to Live?, Rethinking Life and Death, Pushing Time Away, The Life You Can Save, The Point of View of the Universe (co-authored with Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek), Ethics in the Real World, and Why Vegan?

Physical Location:
NUS Business School, BIZ1 #02-04

Or, sign up here to attend via Zoom: https://bit.ly/NUSprosoc

Challenge studies are research studies where human volunteers are intentionally exposed to infectious diseases such as influenza, malaria or dengue. Such studies have received more attention in recent years with their application to COVID-19 during and after the pandemic. This workshop aims to explore the ethical aspects of challenge studies generally as well as through a Singaporean and COVID-19 lens.

Distinguished speakers ranging from clinicians, bioethicists and participant representatives will share their varied insights on challenge studies. The first half of the workshop will feature the history and ethical aspects of challenge studies and the second half will zoom in on how challenge studies (particularly for COVID-19) may be conducted in Singapore and the relevant ethical considerations. Both sessions will include an interactive and engaging Q&A segment where participants may pose questions to the speakers.

Who should attend: Clinician-scientists, IRB members/secretariat, those involved in governance/oversight of research, academics, policymakers

Seminar by Professor Jonathan Moreno

Synopsis : The field that came to be known as bioethics in the late 1960’s is an integral part of the liberal international order intentionally developed in the aftermath of the catastrophe of World War II.  Following the Russian war in Ukraine there is every reason to believe that the set of norms and institutions that preserved peace in Europe through the first Cold War will be revised according to new assumptions that will structure international relations in a second Cold War. Bioethics will need to adapt to the conditions of the new Cold War, as it was shaped by the conditions of the last.

CENTRES Clinical Ethics Conference 2024 is on the theme “Revisiting Best Interests” and will be held on 11^th January 2024 & 12th January 2024 at the Kent Ridge Guild House.

About

The CENTRES Clinical Ethics Conference 2024 will focus on enhancing clarity on the principle of best interests. Although this complex topic has garnered significant attention in bioethics and legal literature, uncertainties persist when applying the principle in clinical practice. It is not always clear what ‘best interests’ is, leading to misinterpretations and conflicts in the care process. 

The goal is to enable healthcare professionals to better understand what best interests mean in various contexts – patient welfare, beneficence, capacity, mental illness. The broad nature of best interests offers us the flexibility to select nuanced issues and cases for discussion. 

Who should attend: Clinical Ethics Committee (CEC) chairpersons and members, doctors, nurses, medical social workers, allied health professionals, lawyers, academics, care workers and policy makers.

Continuing Professional Education Points: Will be awarded for doctors, pharmacists and nurses.

This conference is fully subscribed.

The first Asian Paediatric Ethics Conference is on the theme “Emerging Issues in Paediatric Ethics” and will be held on 2^nd  & 3^rd  October 2023 at the Kent Ridge Guild House.

The practice of clinical paediatrics brings with it unique and distinct ethical issues and dilemmas, particularly in today’s fast advancing world. And yet, the field of paediatric ethics lags behind its adult counterpart, particularly in the Asian region. The Centre for Biomedical Ethics in the National University of Singapore hopes to address this gap by organising an Asian Paediatric Ethics Conference as a platform to discuss, reflect and share practices among practitioners and scholars in our region and further aims to raise the profile of paediatric ethics to better care for children,  who represent the future of our society.

Who should attend
Academics, Healthcare professionals and medical  undergraduates.

Continuing Professional Education Points
The award of CME/CPE points for this event is subject to approval by the respective professional board

Registration
Begins in July. There will be a Registration fee.

RSVP to aruna_c@nus.edu.sg

Pandemic Ethics: 5 Lessons

There is wide recognition that responsible human subjects research requires careful consideration of a number of ethical issues, including balancing risks and benefits, avoiding exploitation, and promoting scientifically valuable research. IRBs are designed to assess these and other issues before research is conducted. However, like all governance systems, IRB review and other oversight mechanisms do not always conform to the ideals. IRBs can sometimes be too lenient, allowing research to go through that is ethically problematic; or, IRBs can be too strict, imposing requirements and delaying research conduct without good justification.

This webinar series consists of four sessions and will explore, through a deep-dive into four specific topics in research ethics, how IRBs and the research enterprise can best achieve this balance. The series will consist of talks by experts at the National University of Singapore’s Centre for Biomedical Ethics, followed by an open Q&A for participants to broaden the discussion.

Session 1, 16 Aug 2023 : What Counts as Research? (registration opens now)
Session 2, 30 Aug 2023 : Risks in Research
Session 3, 13 Sep 2023 : Assessing Scientific Validity
Session 4, 27 Sep 2023 : Coercion, Incentives and Inducement

Time: 12pm to 1pm

Talks presented by:

Regulating Technologies: Obstacles and Opportunities by Professor Henry T. (Hank) Greely

Why, When, and How to Regulate Artificial Intelligence by Professor Simon Chesterman

Rapidly Advancing Stem Cell Technologies: Regulations vs. Guidelines by Dr Insoo Hyun

This workshop is by invitation only

The Paediatric Ethics Programme at the Centre for Biomedical Ethics is conducting a Workshop on Parental Discretion and Conflict in Intensive Care on Saturday 6^th May from 2.30 to 6.00 pm.

Workshop will be led by Professor Dominic Wilkinson, Professor of Medical Ethics at the University of Oxford, and Director of Medical Ethics and Deputy Director at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics. He is a consultant in newborn intensive care at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford. Prof Wilkinson is also a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Biomedical Ethics.

Date: 5 May to 14 June 2022
Days: Tuesdays & Thursdays
Time: 4.00pm to 6.00pm

The Certificate of Healthcare Ethics & Law (CHEL) is a course oriented for practice and focused on developing participants’ skills to use ethics to solve ethical dilemmas faced in clinical practice.

This is a blended course with videos and readings posted online and 12 two hour synchronous workshops offered by the CENTRES programme at CBmE. 

This inaugural run of CHEL is by invitation-only and tailored for the Chairpersons and Deputy Chairpersons of Clinical Ethics Committees.

The topics covered include ethical reasoning and analysis, innovative treatments, telemedicine, shared decision-making, mental capacity, end of life, vulnerable adults and children at risk, medical negligence and confidentiality. 

Participants who complete this course will receive a Certificate of Completion.