The current status and challenges of bioethics education in undergraduate medical education in Karachi, Pakistan.

Background: The importance of including bioethics in the medical curricula has been recognized globally. Certain countries including Pakistan continue to lag behind although some developments have occurred recently.

Objectives: The research aimed to provide a snapshot of bioethics education in undergraduate medical colleges in Karachi, Pakistan.

Amid Explosions in Gaza, The Silence from the Bioethics Community is Deafening.

Bioethicists, through their writings, have been known to represent the conscience of the times. Speaking up against injustices, they have acted as moral compasses in the past. The events of October 7, 2023 and the resulting armed onslaught of Israeli forces on Gaza has created a huge humanitarian crisis.

Situation analysis of research ethics governance in Pakistan.

Background: Mapping of ethical governance structures is very useful in identifying strengths and weaknesses in order to uphold integrity and ensure standardization. However, reliable countrywide data about ethical review committees (ERCs) is unavailable in Pakistan.

Aims: To evaluate the research ethics governance mechanisms at national level and at key healthcare institutions in Pakistan.

Fighting the COVID-19 pandemic: A socio-cultural insight into Pakistan.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare professionals around the world were driven by universal values of solidarity and duty to provide care. However, local societal norms and existing healthcare systems influenced interactions among physicians, and with patients and their families. An exploratory qualitative study design using in-depth interviews was undertaken with physicians working at two public sector hospitals in Karachi, Pakistan.

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among health service providers: A single centre experience from Karachi, Pakistan.

Objective: To assess the views of health service providers towards coronavirus disease 2019 vaccination with Cansino, Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines.

Methods: The analytical cross-sectional study was conducted at the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation, Karachi, in May and June 2021, and comprised doctors, nurses, technical staff, and medical social officers. Data was collected using a questionnaire, in Urdu and English languages, assessing determinants of hesitancy.

Adapting the ethical review process for COVID-19 research: reviewers' perspectives from Pakistan.

Background: Research ethics committees (RECs) globally have adapted their responses to provide timely reviews of research proposals in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The REC of the National Bioethics Committee (NBC) of Pakistan has followed suit.

Aims: To explore perceptions of NBC-REC reviewers who reviewed COVID-19 research proposals while describing the newly instituted Rapid Turnaround Review (RTR) system.

Realigning Pakistan's Bioethics Center during Covid-19.

The arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic in Pakistan necessitated that the Centre of Biomedical Ethics and Culture in Karachi realign its activities to changing realities in the country. As Pakistan's only bioethics center, and with no guidelines available for allocation of scarce medical resources, CBEC developed "Guidelines for Ethical Healthcare Decision-Making in Pakistan" with input from medical and civil society stakeholders. The CBEC blog connected to the center's bioethics programs for students from Pakistan and Kenya shifted to Covid-related issues specific to the context of existing social and political realities within these countries.

Ethical dilemmas in clinical care during COVID-19 pandemic.

In a short span of a few weeks, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the entire world like no other event in modern history. Healthcare institutions and providers have been at the forefront of containing the ravages of this disease, and are experiencing unprecedented challenges. Medical decision making has become all the more complex because of the moral weight of difficult decisions that need to be made.

The meaninglessness of doing bioethics: Reality check from a conflict zone.

Running bioethics workshops one after the other can become a mundane affair, primarily because of the similarity of their content and discourse. However, conducting a workshop for participants from conflict zones such as Palestine provided an entirely new perspective for this author. While the bioethics discourse may translate into useful and actionable guidelines in the free world to help uphold human dignity, to those living in occupied territories and conflict zones, in the face of their lived lives, it appears little more than a self-serving academic exercise by "parachute bioethicists".

Demystifying the practice of khafd in the Dawoodi Bohra community: A commentary on the WeSpeakOut report from India.

In this commentary, we critique a recent report on female genital cutting (FGC) in the Indian Dawoodi Bohra community titled "The Clitoral hood a contested site: Khafd or female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) in India." Published against the backdrop of possible legislation against FGC in India, the report makes good recommendations and is a useful addition to global literature on FGC. We critique specific sections of the document using relevant literature and informal conversations with the Bohra community in Pakistan, thereby highlighting both its strengths and weaknesses.

Biobanking in the subcontinent: exploring concerns.

Biobanking is an important tool for biomedical research. However, it raises a variety of ethical issues, which are compounded in the developing world. This paper is based on data from three sources on the ethical issues associated with biobanking, including a mixed method pilot study conducted with students in Karachi, Pakistan, a workshop in Karachi, and another workshop held in Bengaluru, India.

Pakistan's experience with kidney transplantation and trade: a call for international solidarity.

Pakistan has taken a long and tortuous road towards curbing the trade in organs within its borders. Yet, despite the phenomenal gains, several challenges remain in this area. For example, robust and sustainable deceased donor programmes must be established to meet the needs of a country which has a high prevalence of kidney disease and failure.

A degree in bioethics: an "introspective" analysis from Pakistan.

The success of degree-level bioethics programmes, a recent development across the world, is generally evaluated on the basis of their quantifiable impact; for instance, the number of publications graduates produce. The author conducted a study of Pakistani graduates who had pursued a higher qualification in bioethics, and on the basis of the respondents' written and verbal narratives, this paper presents an analysis of their perceptions of the internal impact of bioethics degree programmes. Using these narratives, the paper also analyses the reactions of their colleagues to their new qualification.

Ethical review in Pakistan: the credibility gap.

The concept of mandatory ethical review of research involving human participants is gradually taking root in Pakistani institutions. Based on the opinions of Institutional Review Board (IRB) members from institutions across the country, the process faces several challenges which threaten its integrity. The lack of registration or accreditation for IRBs has resulted in a wide variation in the calibre and working of such Boards.

To donate a kidney: public perspectives from Pakistan.

Despite the majority opinion of Muslim jurists that organ donation is permitted in Sharia, surveys indicate continuing resistance by lay Muslims, especially to donating organs following death. Pakistan, a country with 165 million Muslims, currently reliant on live donors, is considering steps to establish deceased donor programs which will require public acceptance and support. This article analyzes the results of in-depth interviews with 105 members of the public focusing on opinions and knowledge about juristic rulings regarding kidney donations, donor-family dynamics in deceased donation decisions, and attitudes towards buying kidneys.

Plagiarism and the medical fraternity: a study of knowledge and attitudes.

Objective: To assess knowledge and perceptions of plagiarism in medical students and faculty of private and public medical colleges in Karachi.

Methods: A questionnaire based study was conducted on groups of 4th year medical students and medical faculty members. Group A consisted of medical students while group B comprised faculty members.