The UNESCO Declaration as a tool to bring together the Biology and the Law departments at the Univ. Cergy

Abstract

The University of Cergy-Pontoise (France) was created very recently (1991). Bioethics was not planned to be a discipline to be taught. However, in 1997, students of a biotechnology course (4th year) implicitly requested some kind of bioethics teaching when the cloning of Dolly was reported. Students attended one lecture, and were very impressed by the universality of bioethics; "Everybody/tout le monde is concerned". This community of young people is multiethnic (originating from Europe, Asia and Africa essentially).

So, last year, we offered the biology students to work and discuss together with law students around an international document: The UNESCO Declaration. This small meeting was organized in three steps (1) a discussion session with a biologist and a law specialist as teachers, (2) use of web sites, (3) the lecture given by an anthropologist. Here, we report the lessons from this small experience and the desire we have to pursue a project designed by students.