11th Bioethics Symposium Successfully Held at Izmir University of Economics

A total of 127 participants registered for the symposium. The scientific programme included six invited talks across two panel sessions, 46 oral presentations, and four poster presentations. In addition, four student workshops and three thematic workshops were conducted. Two original interactive formats—“Challenge Me” and “Develop Me”—were introduced for the first time, encouraging active debate and critical engagement among participants. A dedicated networking meeting was also organised to support interaction among early-career and young researchers.

The symposium addressed pressing ethical challenges such as the climate crisis, migration, artificial intelligence, social inequalities, and barriers to equitable access to quality healthcare. Discussions underscored the need for bioethics to engage more closely with other disciplines and to respond more directly to contemporary social realities. Sessions that brought together the critical perspectives of young scholars with the experience of senior academics demonstrated both the necessity and the feasibility of renewal within the field.

Assoc. Prof. Mustafa Volkan Kavas, Chair of the Symposium and faculty member at the IUE Faculty of Medicine, emphasised that the event made a meaningful contribution to the rejuvenation of the bioethics community, the strengthening of interdisciplinary collaboration, and the building of genuine bridges between early-career and senior researchers. Prof. Gürkan Sert, President of the Turkish Bioethics Association, noted that the symposium is expected to provide lasting momentum for bioethics scholarship in Türkiye.

Izmir University of Economics remains committed to hosting academic events that promote critical reflection, youth engagement, and socially responsive bioethics.