Asian Bioethics Review

The first decade of doing bioethics through Pakistan’s Centre of Biomedical Ethics and Culture (CBEC) was an on-the-job learning experience with no similar centres in the region to show the way. Although periodic evaluations from faculty, students, alumni and others helped in developing the academic initiatives and research undertaken by the Centre, the risk of bias inherent in stakeholders’ opinions was always a possibility. The faculty therefore came to believe that an external review by a peer group would provide an impartial assessment of the Centre’s accomplishments and help identify future directions.

While external reviews of clinical departments of hospitals are routinely undertaken, no similar process for bioethics centres has been reported in the literature, necessitating the development of the entire review process de novo. Eight scholars from Pakistan and abroad, with relevant backgrounds, were invited to conduct the review over a four-day period. Their interactions included examining documents, attending academic sessions, and interviewing faculty, students and alumni. Their review report, while noting the academic and research achievements of the Centre in its first decade, also highlighted areas needing attention.

This paper shares with the international bioethics community the authors’ experience of organising an external review of a bioethics centre, and its short-term impact. Even though such reviews for bioethics centres are neither mandatory nor simple to conduct, an objective external assessment can prove invaluable for future planning. Based on this experience, the authors believe that other bioethics centres would also benefit from conducting this exercise.