Dr.
‘Abdullah S. Dar of Oman was presented the UNESCO Avicenna Prize for Ethics in
Science on 14 April 2006, by the UNESCO Director General Koïchiro Matsuura at
the UNESCO Headquarters, in the presence of Muhammad Mehdi Zahedi, the Iranian
Minister of Science, Research and Technology. The UNESCO Avicenna Prize for
Ethics and Science is a way for the Organization to recognize and reward the
research and contributions of individuals and groups in this field and help the
role of ethics in science to achieve greater prominence.
Director of the Program in Applied
Ethics and Biotechnology and Co-Director of the Canadian Program on Genomics
and Global Health at the University of Toronto, Canada.
UNESCO Director-General, Koïchiro
Matsuura, awarded the UNESCO Avicenna Prize for Ethics in Science to Abdallah
S. Daar, in the presence of Mohammad Mehdi Zahedi, the Iranian Minister of
Science, Research and Technology on 14 April 2006 at UNESCO Headquarters in
Paris. Abdallah S. Daar was chosen as the laureate of the 2005 UNESCO Avicenna
Prize for Ethics in Science by the Director-General of UNESCO upon the
recommendation of a jury which met on 22 March 2005 in Bangkok, Thailand.
Abdallah S. Daar, from the Sultanate
of Oman, previously held the Chair of Surgery at Sultan Qaboos University in
the Sultanate of Oman. He is currently Professor of Public Health Sciences and
of Surgery at the University of Toronto (Canada), where he is also Director of
the Program in Applied Ethics and Biotechnology and Co-Director of the Canadian
Program on Genomics and Global Health at the University of Toronto Joint Centre
for Bioethics, and Director of Ethics and Policy at the McLaughlin Centre for
Molecular Medicine.
His significant contribution to
research in the ethics of science and technology does not only cover a wide
range of topics but engages in-depth with issues at the crossing point of
science and ethics, technology and society. The impressive breadth of his
numerous publications in the area of biomedical ethics is evident from the
scope of themes that he covers, ranging from more traditional issues such as
living donor transplantation to newer concerns such as the use of stem cells,
genomics, and xenotransplantation.
The jury of the Prize comprised
Pilar Armanet Armanet (Chile), Chairperson of UNESCO's World Commission on the
Ethics of Science and Technology (COMEST), Johan Hattingh, Rapporteur of
COMEST, and Song Sang-yong, also a member of COMEST.
Dr
Dar is from the Sultanate of Oman and previously held the Chair of Surgery at
the Sultan Qaboos University, Oman. He is currently Professor of Public Health
Sciences and of Surgery at the University of Toronto, where he is also Director
of the Program in Applied Ethics and Biotechnology and Co-Director of the
Canadian Program on Genomics and Global Health at the University of Toronto
Joint Centre for Bioethics, and Director of Ethics and Policy at the McLaughlin
Centre for Molecular Medicine. His significant contribution to research in the
ethics of science and technology does not only cover a wide range of topics,
but engages in depth with issues at the crossing point of science and ethics,
technology and society. The impressive breadth of his numerous publications in
the area of biomedical ethics is evident from the scope of themes that he
covers, ranging from more traditional issues such as living donor
transplantation to newer concerns such as the use of stem cells, genomics and
xenotransplantation (transplants from animals to humans!).
The
prize owes its name to the renowned 11th-century physician and philosopher of
medieval Islam Abu ‘Ali al-Husayn Ibn ‘Abdullah Ibn Sina (980-1038 CE, known by
the Latin name, Avicenna). A healer and a humanist, Avicenna developed an
exemplary holistic approach that captures the essence of ethics in science and
has thus come to serve as a source of inspiration for the promotion of this
concern, which is of central importance in current times. The Avicenna Prize
for Ethics in Science was established following the decision by UNESCO’s
Executive board at its 166th session in 2004. The Islamic Republic of Iran
played a crucial role in the creation of the prize. This prize is intended to
reward the activities of groups and individuals in the field of ethics of science.
The prize consists of a gold medal of Avicenna along with a certificate, the
sum of ten thousand US$, and a one-week academic visit to the Islamic Republic
of Iran, which is to include the delivery of speeches in the relevant academic
gatherings, organized for this purpose by the Government of the Islamic
Republic of Iran.
The
first Avicenna Prize was awarded on 26 April 2004 to Professor Margaret
Somerville, Director of the Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law at McGill
University in Montreal, Canada. Through her books, conferences and other work,
Professor Somerville has made an important contribution to the global
development of bioethics, and to the ethical and legal aspects of medicine and
science.
source: UNESCO