Inaugural Stavros Niarchos Foundation Bioethics Academy Kicks Off in Athens

Advances in biology and medicine might expand the range of our scientific capabilities, but shed no light on what we should do, how those capabilities should be used. That’s where the field of bioethics comes in.

The new Stavros Niarchos Foundation Bioethics Academy will expand awareness of bioethics in Greece. Conducted through a partnership between the Berman Institute of Bioethics at Johns Hopkins University and the Bioethics Chair at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) and exclusively supported by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), the Academy will include components taking place in Athens, Zurich, and Baltimore.

Starting today and through June 22, an intensive summer bioethics course is offered in Athens at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC). The course is co-directed by Professors Jeffrey Kahn, the Andreas C. Dracopoulos Director of the Berman Institute, and Effy Vayena, Head of the Health Ethics and Policy Lab at ETH, and includes faculty from Greece, the U.S., and Switzerland. Lectures and small group discussions focus on Greek cases that raise ethical questions related to clinical medicine and biomedical research.