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Dear Global Bioethics Network,
This is a final message and Thank You to all of you. I also want to say that for a long time it has not been appropriate to have a Core Group that excluded so many wonderful people that were in the other group. I think especially of Ivan Segota and Marcelo Palacios but also of Manuel Velasco-Suarez and L. Daniel Otero. The Core Group was really Original Group that grew. Everyone - please excuse all this.
Now a bit of history. I am quite weak and write with difficulty. I hope my memory serves me. For a long time 1970-1990 there was no one who recognized my name and wanted to be part of a mission. In the USA there was an immediate explosion of the use of the word Bioethics by Medical People who failed to mention my name or name any of my four publications 1970-1971. Unfortunately, their image of Bioethics delayed the emergence of what now exists.
It was in 1988 that I published Global Bioethics. Building on the Leopold Legacy. In all the world there was just one person who saw the book, saw the opportunity and contacted me. It was Brunetto Chiarelli, Professor of Anthropology, University of Florence, Italy. In 1990 he invited me to give a lecture "Global Bioethics" in Northern Italy, in Trentino, a progressive community. I accepted the invitation and went there under the care of my son, Carl. It was my last trip outside the USA.
After my lecture before the Italian Society for Bioethics, Prof. Chiarelli asked for permission to use the term Global Bioethics as the title of the transformed local journal to be published in English. I said yes and he got the unanimous approval from the membership.
The next recruit was Peter Whitehouse, Professor of Neurology and other specialties at Case Western Reserve Medical School in Cleveland, Ohio. He was Founder/Director of the Alzheimer Research Center for its first ten years. In February 1996 he drove to Madison and wanted to join my mission, with the proposal to change the name to Deep Bioethics. This didn't happen but the word was mentioned later. Peter returned to Madison in 1997 and we spent an entire day together, on a Ferry Boat, at my cabin, in the trees with many photos and a video by Peter. A wonderful day. Peter traveled all over the world on behalf of Alzheimer therapy, and I would get email messages from "30,000 feet about the Atlantic" or from "Helsinki, leaving for Beijing". His subsequent contributions need telling. At about that time Hans Schweinsberg and Ms. Erin Williams, J.D. became No. 3 and No. 4 in less spectacular ways.
The next big event was the 1998 invitation from No. 5, Hyakudai Sakamoto, Prof. Philosophy and President of the 4th World Congress of the International Association of Bioethics which was of course Medical. But as President he chose the theme: "Global Bioethics, South and North, East and West."
I declined to travel but offered to make my first videotape, which was accepted. I also sent a copy of the Audio-Script, which he reproduced and placed in every Registration Kit. He offered copies of the tape at cost, and this had world-wide effects.
The following year, 1999, I received an invitation to speak at a Bioethics Congress in Mexico City and I received impressive printed records of events to date from Prof. Manuel Velasco-Suarez. Again, I declined to travel but offered to make a special tape for the occasion. My offer was accepted and the tape has impressive quotes from my host, mentioning "agua, atmosphera" and "opportanidad hoy".
So the next big event was the next year, in 2000, an invitation to speak at an International World Congress in Gijon, Spain, coming from Dr. Marcelo Palacios, President and Founder of the Society of International Bioethics (SIBI). Again, not traveling, I offered a tape and the offer was accepted. This was my third tape and it shows the face of President Franklin D. Roosevelt of USA (1932-1946) with quote. Call it the FDR tape. The Gijon meeting was one of the biggest events in my life, all captured on film with copies sent to me, along with the medal and diploma from the SIBI Prize 2000.
Thus it was year by year from 1998, 1999, 2000, and now in 2001 an invitation from Prof. Ivan Segota to come to a meeting on the Island of Ceres, Croatia in September, and again, a tape instead. But this time three members of my so-called Core Group will speak.
In conclusion I just want to say that I hope you will all send a message of support to Prof. Calvin DeWitt. Also please cooperate with Prof. Thomas Potthast, Max Planck Institute, Berlin who is writing a History of Bioethics. He has spent time with me in Madison a year ago and is coming again this year.
Farewell to all, with love,
Van Rensselaer Potter, Ph.D.
Hilldale Professor Emeritus of Oncology
McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research
University of Wisconsin-Madison
1400 University Avenue
Madison, WI 53706-1599
Global Bioethics Network
1. Hans Schweinsberg, Toronto, Canada
(cist@edu.yorku.ca)
2. Brunetto Chiarelli, Florence, Italy
(antropos@cesit1.unifi.it)
3. Hyakudai Sakamoto, Tokyo, Japan
(sakamoto@peacock.iis.chs.nihon-u.ac.jp)
4. Peter Whitehouse, Cleveland, Ohio
(pjw3@po.cwru.edu)
5. Michael Fox, Washington, D.C. (bioethics@hsus.org)
6. Erin D. Williams, Esq., Manassas, Virginia
(ewilliams@geneticmedicine.org)
7. Heinz Herrmann, Storrs, Connecticut
(hvherrmann@neca.com)
8. Kelly H. Clifton, Madison, Wisconsin
(clifton@mail.humonc.wisc.edu)
9. Calvin B. DeWitt, Madison, Wisconsin
(cbdewitt@facstaff.wisc.edu)
10. James E. Trosko, East Lansing, MI (james.trosko@ht.msu.edu)
11. Juan Pablo Beca, Santiago, Chile (jpb@cmet.net)
12. Arturo Filipowicz, Warsaw, Poland (fartur@polbox.com)
13. Alfonso Llano, Bogota, Columbia (cenalbe@javeriana.edu.co)
14. Richard Grantham, Lyon, France (c/o Tim Greenland, greenlan@univ-lyon1.fr)
15. Sophie Jakowska, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (jakowska@hotmail.com)
16. Eduardo E. Sousa-Lennox Mendoza, Panama City (sousalennox@cwp.net.pa)
17. L. Daniel Otero, Merida, Venezuela (ldotero@ciens.ula.ve)
18. Marcelo Palacios, Gijon, Spain (bioetica@sibi.org)
19. Giovanni Russo, Messina, Italy (estisi@pcn.net)
20. Ivan Segota, Rijeka, Croatia (ivan.segota@mamed.medri.hr)
21. Manuel Velasco-Suarez, Mexico City (vsuarez@servidor.unam.mx)
22. Thomas Potthast, Berlin, Germany (potthast@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de)
23. William Atchley, San Francisco, CA (wmatchley@att.net)
24. Marcus Duwell, Tubingen, Germany (zew@uni-tuebingen.de)
25. Peter Price-Thomas, San Francisco, CA (ppt@naturalstep.org)
26. Marcin Jakubowski, Madison, WI (mjakubow@students.wisc.edu)
27. Mark Fisher, Havelock North, New Zealand (mark.fisher@agresearch.co.nz)
28. Ludwig Schmidt, Caracas, Venezuela (lschmidt@ucab.edu.ve)
29. Andrew Jameton, Omaha, NE (ajameton@unmc.edu)
30. Marianna Gensabella Furnari, Messina, Italy (marianna.gensabella@unime.it)
31. John Hofert, China (jphof@mail.zlnet.com.cn)
32. David B. Wake, Berkeley, CA (wakelab@uclink4.berkeley.edu)
33. Andres Peralta-Cornielle, Dominican Republic (iorcancer@hotmail.com)
34. Svitlana Vekovshynina, Kiev, Ukraine (vsv@carrier.kiev.ua)
35. José Ramón Acosta Sariego, La Habana, Cuba (joseacosta@giron.sld.cu)
36. Garet Lahvis, Madison, WI (lahvis@oncology.wisc.edu)
37. Tim Anderson, Madison, WI (tranderson@oncology.wisc.edu)
38. Thomas Yuill, Madison, WI (tmyuill@facstaff.wisc.edu)