Prof. dr. J.M. van den Broek

MedQuiz for Future Decision Makers

Workshop Leaders: Prof. dr. J.M. van den Broek 

Department: Department of Biomedical Communication in Science, Leiden University Medical Center

Fifty years ago we expected cars to fly around in 2010. Our four-wheeled vehicles still use highways. Instead, we got the World Wide Web, personal computers grabbing information from the air, iPods and iPads: inventions that couldn't be foreseen in our wildest dreams.

How is the world in 2060 going to look like? Is your own life expectancy going to be extended to 150 or even 200 years? Will you be able to measure the genomes and metabolomes of hospital patients instantaneously for one cent or even less? Can your children choose the genetic make-up of your grandchildren? Can deep-brain stimulation make you happier? Can you read the mind of a criminal, or will crime even be something from the dark past?

This is probably all science fiction, but undoubtedly science will lead to other unavoidable accomplishments. Converging technologies (a merger of bio- and gene technology, nanoscience, informatics and cognitive science) will dramatically change the future of mankind. Even in the near future difficult ethical decisions will have to be made about what we consider to be acceptable. In an interactive workshop – the MedQuiz – we are going to find out if it will be possible to define ethical boundaries for the biomedical sciences of the near and far future. What do we find acceptable? What has to be avoided?