Bangladesh Bioethics Society

Bangladesh Bioethics Society (BBS) Given urgent need for research, education and implementation of bioethics principles in social development and in consideration of the advances in science and technology, biomedical technologies and the environmental crisis, the Bangladesh Bioethics Society (BBS) was established. BBS is working to promote strong ethical values, practice of ethics and morality among different stakeholders for preventing corruption, upholding human rights and promoting good governance in Bangladesh.

BBS was established in 2009 under the auspice of RUSHSAP (Regional Unit for Social and Human Science in Asia and the Pacific) UNESCO Bangkok and UNESCO Dhaka and was launched by H.E. Nurul Islam Nahid, Minister of Education, People's Republic of Bangladesh with the enterprise of Prof. Shamima P Lasker and Dr. Arif Hossain to uphold the value of free, open and reasoned discussion in the issues in bioethics, encourage teaching and research on bioethical issues and encourage application of the knowledge and skills of bioethics in social and personal life for promoting bioethical maturity in the society.

BBS is the first academic organization on bioethics in Bangladesh. It is a non profit, non political, multi-disciplinary and voluntary organization.

To build awareness and sensitivity on bioethics in country, BBS has organized courses, researches, international conferences and interlinks with other national and international organizations. The society has also taken part in public campaigns for policy changes. Society is also working for Road Safety.

Vision, Mission, Goals and Objectives

Vision

BBS would like to see an ethically educated and morally healthy generation for sustainable development of Bangladesh.

Mission of BBS

To bring community people to think AbOUT critical issues and balance the risks and benefits in their choices and decisions for peace, human rights, balanced gender, tolerance and democratic governance.

Goals of BBS

Ethically enlightened citizens in all strata of society regardless of poor, rich, cast and creed.

Objectives of BBS

Uphold the value of free, open and reasoned discussion of issues in bioethics;
Facilitate contacts and exchange of information between those working in bioethics across Bangladesh;
Encourage teaching of bioethics in Bangladesh at all levels;
Disseminate the idea of bioethics and results through popular lectures, public awareness programme and publications;
Encourage application of the knowledge and skills of bioethics in personal and social life and promote bioethical maturity of the society;
Encourage development of research about bioethics issues in Bangladesh and from across the world;
Organize and promote lectures, seminars, workshops and national and international conferences in bioethics;
Assist the linkage with regional and global organizations of bioethics;
Encourage other academic works or projects to accomplish their goals consisting of the objectives of the society and
Facilitate government policies consisting of the objectives of the society.

Affiliations

BBS is affiliated to:

UNESCO Asia-Pacific School of Ethics, Thailand
Global Ethics Observatory (GEObs), Paris
Kennedy Institute of Ethics, USA
International Society of Bioethics (SIBI), Spain
Globethics.net, Switzerland

BBS Committees

Executive Committee of BBS (2014-2016)

Position	Name	Designation	Institute
President	Prof Taslima Monsoor	Professor & Dean, Faculty of Law	University of Dhaka
Vice Presidents	Dr Arif Hossain	Course Coordinator & Mentor, Dept. of Human Rights Director Associate Editor	Etrat University, Iran EBCI Group Friday Review, Dhaka
Vice Presidents	Prof Wardatul Akmam	Department Of Sociology	University of Rajshahi
General Secretary	Prof Shamima P Lasker	Prof & Head of Anatomy	City Dental College
Joint Secretary	Adv Alamgir Kabir	Director, AK & Associate & Member	Bangladesh Bar Council
Treasurer	Dr Sitesh C. Bachar	Professor, Dept of Pharmaceutical Technology	University of Dhaka
Publication Secretary	Mrs. Tahera Ahmed	Asst Representative, UNFPA (Rtd.)	UNFPA, Bangladesh
Publicity Secretary	Dr Md Humayun Kabir Talukder	Professor & Course Coordinator	Centre for Medical Education, Dhaka
Member	Adv Hosne Ara Lutfa Dalia, MP	Bangladesh Supreme Court & Judge Court	Rangpur
Member	Prof Md Aynal Haque	Professor and Director, Biomedical Engineering Centre	BUET
Member	Prof Rowshan Ara	Dept of Philosophy	Dhaka University
Member	Dr. Badruddoza	Chairman & Director, City Dental College	City Dental College
Member	Mr. Kamal Hossain	Deputy Secretary	UGC
Member	Dr Noor E Parvin	Associate Professor of Zoology	Dhaka College
Member	Dr Ashraf Ali	President	Taposhi Bangla Community Health Care & Social Work Organization
Member	Dr MA Shakoor	Associate Professor, Department of Physical Medicine	BSMMU
Member	Dr Iffat Ara	Rtd.
Member	Major (Rtd.) Zia Uddin Ahme	Director	DMHLtd
Member	Dr Zubayer	Lecturer of Anatomy	Greenlife Medical College, Dhaka
Member	Mehdi Imam	URBIS, Coordinator in Dhaka,	Centre for Urban Studies (CUS), Dhaka.
Student Representative	Farin Binte Rahman	4th year BDS Student	City Dental College, Dhaka.

Advisory Committee of BBS

Name	Designation	Institute
Dr Darryl Macer	Professor of Bioethics and Biomedicine AUSN Former Regional Advisor Director & Provost	AUSN, USA UNESCO, Bangkok
Dr Malama Maleisea	Director Centre for Samoan Studies Former Director	National University of Samoa UNESCO, Dhaka.
Prof. Nazrul Islam	Chairman Former Chairman	Centre for Urban Studies UGC
Habbibullah Majumder	Secretary Former Secretary	Consultant IMED Ministry of Planning
Selina Hossain	Chairman Bengali fiction writer, essayist and editor	Bangladesh Shisu Academy
Prof M A Mannan	Pediatrician Former Chairman	BMRC.
Iftekharuzzaman	Executive Director	TIB
Dr Shah Md Keramat Ali	Professor & Head of Public Health	Daffodil University
Prof. Ahmed Neaz	Dept of Economics	AIUB
Prof. Shamima Choudhury	Dept of Physics	Dhaka University
Shelina Afroze PhD	Additional Director	HSTTI, Rajshahi
Parvin Sultana		Gender and Energy Network Bangladesh

Journal

Bangladesh Journal of Bioethics (BJB) is the official Journal of the BBS, first published in 2010. BJB has both print and internet version EDition journal and published quarterly. The journal promotes multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary study in the field of ethics in medicine, science, social science, law, education, policy and research.

The journal is indexed by NLB, Index Copernicus, DOAJ and Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC), WHO IMSEAR, Bangljol of INASP and Drij.

BJB is being published regularly in different international publishing house.

BanglaJOL
Hinary (WHO/OMS Extranet service)
Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research
Georgetown University Law Library, USA
Globethics.net, Switzerland
Universe Digital Library (UDL), Malaysia
Directory of Research Journal Indexing (DRJI)
World Medical Journal Editors (WAME)

Registration

Registered by Joint STOCK Society, Bangladesh, Under Registration Act 1860, Registration No: S11259.

Address: 1085/1 Malibagh Chowdhury Para, Dhaka-1219, Bangladesh,

Projects

Courses/Seminars/Conferences

Over the last couple of years, BBS has organized a number of courses/seminars/workshops to familiarize the idea of bioethics and encourage development of research on bioethics issues in Bangladesh.

Human Rights Training for Students

To promote strong ethical values, practice of ethics and morality among young generation in their professional and social life to lead the nation for upholding human rights and for sustainable development of Bangladesh, BBS has started youth leadership training workshop bioethics for ensuring human rights from 2011.

Government Policy

BBS took part in discussions with Education Policy Implementation Committee, Ministry of Education and gave suggestions about the aims and objectives of ethical teaching in education policy and strategies the government should take to uphold moral teaching in education policy.
BBS is working on Health policy for improving public health and medical practices for the protection of human and human rights.

Road Safety Programmme

There has been an alarming rise in road accidents in Bangladesh over the past few years. Many initiatives have been taken by different organizations to reduce the Road Traffic Accidents (RTA). Law enforcement agency promotes good practices related to helmet and seat-belt wearing and not drinking & driving. But there has not been any action taken yet on speed limit. In addition there are almost no speed limit sign posts in the roads particularly in the cities. Therefore, drivers particularly young and novice have motives and attitudes for speeding and causing accidents.

Speeding is not only unethical but also a crime. Currently, BBS in collaboration with Highway Police and BRTC has taken initiative of awareness programme, research and place speed limit signposts at roads and highways to reduce RTA. Road Safety programme had been launched on 15 June 2013.

Human Resource Development

To develop skills and knowledge of bioethics, BBS regularly sends their members in different international conferences so that the individuals can accomplish the goals of society.