Fundamentals of research ethics--international and regional perspectives: welcome address.

I would like to welcome Professor Pirzada Qasim, the Vice-Chancellor of Karachi University, and all the delegates and thank you all for participating in this conference Fundamentals of Research Ethics – International and Regional Perspectives. I am especially grateful to the foreign participants , who came despite discouragement by their governments. I am confident that you will appreciate how peaceful Pakistan is and that you will not hesitate to come again. I appreciate all the support provided by Karachi University and Professor Pirzada Qasim in developing the Institute of Urol-ogy and Transplantation (SIUT) by initiating the postgraduate programme for a Masters degree in surgery. The Institute has the honour to produce the first such Masters in the country. The MD in nephrology and the PhD and MPhil in basic sciences have followed this. All these programmes are ongoing. Another unique development is the addition of Bachelors degrees in medical technology, laboratory medicine, theatre technology, intensive care and dialysis. Young men and women, who are bright but could not gain admission in medical institutions due to having slightly lower grades, have joined these courses. Credit goes to Karachi University for starting this programme by providing financial assistance. After the establishment of the Centre of Biomedical Ethics and Culture (CBEC), the International Centre for Bioethics will be formed which will be affiliated with Karachi University. The Centre is the first such centre in the country, and the regional centre, the Institute of Biotechnology, in Karachi University will be the first of its kind catering to the needs of the region. The World Health Organization is expected to help with this programme. A postgraduate diploma programme will soon be started and the Masters in bioethics will follow. Surgeons always try to abide with ethics , but they tend not to be keen researchers. Ethicists are the real custodians of research and its safety, and are responsible for safeguarding the interests of the common man in research. Research is for the benefit of mankind and the good results should be made accessible to everybody in this world. Both these factors make research meaningful. Ethics is an important component of research and without ethics, research will end in disasters such as Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Without ethics, research will produce biological warfare instead of antibiotics. The whole world is gripped by the fear of bioterrorists. The United States of America spends about 9.5 billion US dollars …