Bioethics

Well aware of its responsibilities, the Louis-Jeantet Foundation faces up to the issues for society resulting from the developments and applications of biomedical research.

For seven years it financed a multi-disciplinary project covering research and documentation on bioethics, with focus on the problems raised by recent advances in human genetics. In 1995, this project resulted in the inauguration in Geneva of the first institute for biomedical ethics forming part of a medical faculty in Switzerland.

Professor Alex Mauron, jointly responsible for this project financed by the Foundation, has been entrusted with the management of this institute.

More recently, together with the Leenaards Foundation, the Louis-Jeantet Foundation sponsored the bioethical chapter of the regional programme Sciences, Vie et Société (SVS). The two foundations allocated a total sum of CHF1m to this programme.