Dear Colleagues and Friends, Welcome to Coimbra!

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Welcome to Coimbra!

Welcome to the 2015 Annual Congress of the World Association for Medical Law – the 21^st World Congress on Medical Law.

The WAML Annual Congress provides an international forum for discussion of a broad range of issues covering Ageing and Health Law, Informational Technology and Health Law, Migrations and Health Law, Islamic Bioethics and related topics.  220 abstracts were received and reviewed by the selection committee.

The 21^st WCML is taking place in Coimbra from 2 to 6 August 2015.

Founded in 1290, the University of Coimbra is listed as UNESCO World Heritage site since June 2013.

The University of Coimbra shaped the character of the Portuguese Speaking countries, notably Brazil. This historical relation has nowadays a renewed interested since over 10% of the Students come from the biggest South-American country. In fact, Coimbra is a University town with a cosmopolitan flavor, since it attracts students and researchers worldwide, from China to Morocco, from East-Timor to Colombia.

The Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Medicine have a prominent role in the University and in the City. Therefore, Medical Law has been developing for a long period of time. Its roots can be found back in the beginning of the 20^th Century with the first discipline on Law and Deontology of Pharmacists. Later on, in 1988, the Faculty of Law founded the Centre for Biomedical law, a European standard research institution in the field. In the last 20 years, the Faculty of Medicine also includes Medical law, together with Medical Ethics and Deontology in its curriculum. Moreover, Coimbra has one of the biggest Hospitals in Portugal, which ranks as very active on clinical research and education at a European level.

Thus, here we find an intellectual and spiritual environment and background for debating and studying Medical Law.

We came from all over the World to listen and to discuss with almost 200 speakers, coming from over 40 countries, from the 5 Continents, with very high-level presentations concerning the fields of (1) Ageing & Health Law; (2) Information Technologies & Health Law; (3) Migrations & Health Law, as well as very interesting presentation on general topics of Medical law.

Moreover, we are very happy to accommodate a superb Congress on Islamic Bioethics, on August 5^th and 6^th.

We also organized a nice social program, with a welcome reception by the pool and feeling the breeze of the Mondego River, Sunday evening; a terrific night tour to the World Heritage University, Monday evening; a wonderful town reception in the Cloisters of the Convent where the founder of the Portuguese Nation (D. Afonso Henriques) lies – the Church of Saint Cross, Tuesday evening  and, finally, a nice Gala Dinner with Portuguese traditional music - Fado – by the pool, illuminated by the moon, in a warm mid-summer night, Thursday evening…

Special Acknowledgements:

I would like to gratefully acknowledge all who provided so much input and effort into the planning and implementation of the meeting. 

I sincerely thank our invited speakers for their contributions to the program.

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

Program Chair 21^st WCML - Prof. Dr. André Dias Pereira – (Centre for Biomedical Law, Faculty of Law, University of Coimbra, Portugal)

President of WAML, President of the 21^st WCML - Prof. Dr. Thomas Noguchi – (University of Southern California, L.A, USA)

·      Prof. Dr. Anne-Marie Duguet – (University of Toulouse, France)

·      Prof. Dr. Berna Arda – (Ankara University - Turkey)

·      Prof. Dr. Fernando Montalvo (Comillas Pontifical University - Spain)

·      Prof. Dr. Kurosu – (Tokyo University - Japan)

·      Prof. Dr. José António Seoane (University of A Coruña - Spain)

·      Dr. Oren Asman – (Tel Aviv University, Israel)

·      Dr. Richard S Wilbur, USA

·      Prof. Dr. Roy Beran – (University of New South Wales & Griffith University – Australia)

·      Prof. Dr. Vardit Rispler-Chaim (Haifa University, Israel)

·      Prof. Dr. Vugar Mammadov – (Baku State University - Azerbaijan)

·      Prof. Dr. Chongqi Wu – (China Health Law Society, China)

·      Dr. Eduardo Dantas – (Recife, Brazil)

·      Prof. Dr. Guilherme de Oliveira – (University of Coimbra, Portugal)

·      Dr. Kenneth J. Berger  – (Toronto, Canada)

·      Dr. Nasser Muh – (Jakarta, Indonesia)

·      Prof. Dr. Sanjin Dekovic – (Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina)

·      Dr. Radmila Hrevtsova – (Kiev, Ukraine)

Organizational Committee:

·       Denise McNally – Meeting Manager

·       Prof. Dr. Thomas Noguchi – President of WAML

·       Prof. Dr. André Dias Pereira – Treasurer of WAML, Program Chair 21^st WCML

·       Prof. Dr. Roy Beran – Secretary-general of WAML

·       Dr. Oren Asman –Executive Vice-President of WAML

·       Carla Barbosa – Centre for Biomedical Law (Coimbra, Portugal)

Early Career Award Committee

·       Prof. Dr. Anne-Marie Duguet – President

·       Prof. Dr. Berna Arda

·       Dr. Ken Berger

·       Prof. Dr. Virgílio Rodriguez-Vazquez

Poster’s Award Committee

·       Prof. Dr. Vugar Mammadov

·       Prof. Dr. Roy Beran

Volunteer’s Team

·       Ana Elisabete Ferreira

·       Andreia Andrade

·       Arthur Kullok

·       Sara Madeira

·       Ana Chaves

·       Rui Claro

·       Ana Luísa Santos

·       Flávio Tribuna

·       Gabriela Lacerda Assunção

·       Beatriz Naufél

But there are 2 persons whose name I must stress:

Denise McNally and Carla Barbosa – They have done a terrific work and I thank them very deeply from my heart!

I hope to see you on August 2^nd evening, by the pool, at Hotel Vila Galé, in Coimbra!