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Genomics in the Gulf Region and Islamic Ethics
2016

Genomics in the Gulf Region and Islamic Ethics

Mohammed Ghaly (editor) Eman Sadoun Fowzan Alkuraya Khalid Fakhro Ma’n Zawati Said Ismail Tawfeg Ben-Omran Mohammed Ghaly (editor)* Eman Sadoun Fowzan Alkuraya Khalid Fakhro Ma’n Zawati Said Ismail Tawfeg Ben-Omran

Despite, genomics and Islamic ethics presenting themselves as relatively new subjects of study this paper explores the importance of addressing pressing ethical questions in relation to how Islamic ethics has played out in the Gulf context and what experts have to say about this.

This forum will examine the management of incidental findings through the lens of the Islamic ethical tradition. The success of the pioneering genomic initiatives in the Gulf region necessitates building up an interdisciplinary solid knowledge-base which takes into consideration the religio-cultural fabric of the region and the Muslim world to which the region belongs. This knowledge base should pair the scientific research with cutting-edge research in Islamic ethics which should also engage in serious dialogue with relevant international bioethical deliberations. For the first time in the Muslim world, the ‘Genomics in the Gulf Region and Islamic Ethics’ forum of the WISH summit produces a comprehensive report on the ethical management of incidental findings. The report outlines the status quo of genomics in the Gulf region, relevant international bioethical deliberations and particularly focuses on the possible contribution of Islamic ethics to this emerging field. The report also makes policy recommendations on how to create culturally sensitive guidelines.

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Dr. Mohammed Ghaly

Mohammed Ghaly is a professor of Islam and Biomedical Ethics at the Center for Islamic Legislation & Ethics (CILE), Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar. In 1999, he studied Islamic Studies in English at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt and was awarded his Bachelor’s degree cum laude. In 2002, he earned his Master’s degree in Islamic Studies, also cum laude, from Leiden University, in the Netherlands and in 2008, he received his PhD from the same university. During the period 2007-2013, Dr. Ghaly was a faculty member at Leiden University and since 2011, he has been a faculty member at the Erasmus Mundus Program, a European Master of Bioethics program jointly organized by a number of European universities. Dr. Ghaly currently serves as the editor-in-chief of Journal of Islamic Ethics (published by Brill) and serves on the editorial board of a number of academic journals. He also acts as a research consultant on a number of research projects. He was invited to lecture on Islamic bioethics at many universities around the world including Imperial College London, Oxford University, University of Oslo, University of Chicago and Georgetown University. During the academic year 2014-2015, he was Visiting Researcher at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University. He is also the Lead Principal Investigator of the research project “Indigenizing Genomics in the Gulf Region (IGGR): The Missing Islamic Bioethical Discourse” funded by the Qatar National Research Fund (2016-2019).

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