Global Bioethics Education Initiative Update (Fall 2015)

INTRODUCING OUR 2015 GBEI SCHOLAR

Since 2009, CBHD has hosted both rising and established international professionals and scholars who will further advance contextually sensitive Christian bioethical engagement globally through our Global Bioethics Education Initiative (GBEI).

Jennifer Castañeda, MD, PhD (2015 Recipient)

Dr. Castañeda was born in the Philippines, but has been residing in Poland for the past 20 years, where she finished medical studies in the Collegium Medicum, Jagiellonian University in Cracow, and did her PhD in the field of oncogenetics in the Pomeranian Medical University of Szczecin. She completed the specialization program in Clinical Genetics in the Department of Medical Genetics of the Institute of Mother and Child in Warsaw, where she currently combines work in the Genetic Counseling Unit of the Department with research. Dr. Castañeda’s interest in bioethics has increased over her years of direct contact with patients in genetic counselling and in the context of emerging technological possibilities in genetics, especially in prenatal diagnostics. She finished a two-year postgraduate program: “Ethics in Medical Practice in Perinatology and Pediatrics,” a joint project of the Institute of Mother and Child and the Paris-Est Marné-la-Valée University, with a paper entitled “The Ethical Requisite of Non-Directive Genetic Counselling in Prenatal Diagnostics.” She presented this work as a parallel paper during the Center’s annual conference.

Her main areas of interest in bioethics are ethics in genetics and genetic counseling, prenatal diagnostics, and emerging genetic technology. Clinical genetics is a relatively new field of specialization in Poland, and ethical reflection among specialists is still at an incipient stage. As a GBEI scholar, Dr. Castañeda spent the summer utilizing the resources of the Center’s Research Library to explore literature relevant to her areas of interest. She plans to continue promoting and contributing to profound ethical discussions among specialists in Poland.