Article in The Lancet Decries Bioethics Conference for Not Condemning Genocide
Originally published at National Review- Categories
- Bioethics
- Science Journals
An article in The Lancet decries the recent 17th World Conference on Bioethics, Medical Ethics, and Health Law for failing to condemn “genocide.” Of course, the authors are referencing Israel’s self-defense in Gaza. From, “Silence on Genocide at the World Conference on Bioethics:”
Between Nov 24 and Nov 27, 2025, the International Chair in Bioethics held its 17th World Conference on Bioethics, Medical Ethics, and Health Law in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Despite being hosted in a nation whose President has vocally condemned the “genocide in Gaza” at the UN, the conference stood in stark contrast to its setting. No scheduled sessions discussed the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe, representing a profound disconnect between the event’s location and its content…
If an organisation claiming global leadership cannot condemn—or even discuss—genocide, it fails its primary mandate. Silence in this context erodes the very principles of bioethics. We call on the International Chair in Bioethics to publicly condemn genocide in all its forms. If we, as ethicists and health-care professionals, cannot do this, our efforts are rendered meangingless.
Silence on genocide at an international bioethics conference is indeed unconscionable: China’s!
The People’s Republic of China unquestionably is waging a real genocide against the Uyghurs, complete with concentration camps, slavery, torture, coerced confessions, rape, forced abortion and sterilization, and dispossession of property.
China also tissue types, murders, and organ harvests Falun Gong practitioners—as well as Uyghurs and other political prisoners—to supply its transplant black market, where for enough money, one can purchase a kidney or liver in days or weeks. (See Jan Jekielek’s eye-opening new book, Killed to Order.) Now there’s a real bioethics issue!
And think about the cultural genocide being waged against Tibet that is destroying that occupied country’s Buddhist heritage.
But the authors in The Lancet don’t mention any of that. Why am I not surprised?