CMC Ludhiana Establishes UNESCO’s Chair of BioEthics

Ludhiana, February 2, 2019: The Christian Medical College Ludhiana held a program to officially establish the UNESCO’s Chair for Bioethics (Haifa) as it’s North Indian Regional Center. CMC Ludhiana has nearly 145 different rural mission hospitals all around the country where its graduates serve and have been teaching medical ethics as part of the curriculum for more than 30 years. In its 125th year as a medical school CMC has been a major contributor to the dissemination of BioEthics in Northern India by UNESCO chair of BioEthics at CMC Ludhiana. For more than 125 years a large number of its alumni provide service in rural and remote parts of India through its 146 affiliated Mission hospitals. Dr Russel D’Souza, from Melbourne at Australia represented the Asia Pacific Division of the UNESCO and presented the Writs of Establishment to the Director- Dr William Bhatti and the Principal- Dr Jeyaraj D Pandian. Prof Raj Bahadur the Vice Chancellor of the Baba Farid University was the guest of honor and was effusive in describing the Ethical standards in CMC. He was sure that CMC would impact health care not just in Punjab but in the whole region through its vast experience and resources. Dr. Jeyaraj D Pandian, Principal was established as the Chair for the UNESCO unit and Dr Clarence J. Samuel, Vice Principal as the Head, Dr. Jurgen Jacob was the Student Head of the Steering Committee, Dr Anjali Jain, and Prof of Anatomy who is the secretary of the Unit gave the vote of thanks. Dr William Bhatti reminded everyone that CMC’s 125 year legacy is based on Ethics and values which haven’t changed in spite of corporatization of medicine. Its greatest assets is the graduates from Medicine, Surgery, Nursing, Physiotherapy, Dental and allied sciences due to the values and ethics inculcated in them. Others present included- Principal CDC the Dental College- Dr Abi M Thomas, Vice Principal CDC- Dr. Geroge Koshy, Dr Abilasha Williams vice Principal CMC, Dr. Shareen Verghese vice Principal CMC, Dr.Ashish Verhgese vice Principal CMC, Mrs. Glory Samuel, and Vice Principal College of Nursing. Guests from other instutues included Dr Kuldeep kaur principal PIMS Jalandhar, Dr Anu Sharma, DMC, Dr Deepak Singla- Maharaja Agresen Hospital Delhi The plight of Indian women due to gender and socio-cultural discrimination touched the heart of Dr. Edith Mary Brown and her colleagues that they sought to empower women in Health Care through the Zannana Mission. In 1894 the North Indian School of Medicine for Christian Women was born with four women joining the course becoming the oldest medical school for women in Asia. The name was changed the Women’s Christian Medical College in 1912. The hospital served exclusively female patients though its doctors, nurses and medical students. The First Male Students were enrolled in 1953. CMC Ludhiana has students and faculty from all starts of India – it is rightly called a Mini India. CMC is known for its high ethical standards and is instrumental in teaching medical ethics since 1980’s.We have also contributed to the inclusion of medical ethics curriculum in the Punjab University and later to the Baba Farid Unviersity. Dr Tejinder Singh and Dr Dindesh Badyal have been intimately involved in the Development of the AETCOM module for the Medical Council of India which will be part of the curriculum from this year onwards. Dr Brown established the North Indian Medical School for Women and now we formally establish the North Indian regional center for BioEthics as part of the UNESCO chair of bioethics.