The National Committee for Bioethics held its fourth meeting for the year 2019 at Sultan Qaboos University on 30 December 2019. The meeting was chaired by H. E. Dr. Ali bin Saud Al-Bimani, the Vice Chancellor of SQU and Chairman of the National Bioethics Committee.

The meeting reviewed many topics on the agenda, including preparations for the second international conference on bioethics to be held in February 2020. The conference will feature 23 external speakers and 12 speakers from the Sultanate. This conference targets several groups such as health and legal workers and specialists in the field of law and Sharia in addition to students.

The meeting also reviewed the participation of the National Committee in the second summit of the Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, as many specialists from the Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, WHO and UNESCO praised the Omani Ethics Committee, where the Committee has gained international fame in the field of bioethics. Further, a program entitled “Emerging Ethical and Legislative Issues in Biomedicine and Research” has been adopted.

The committee discussed the development of some previously prepared documents prepared by the committee in the backdrop of recent scientific developments and circulated them to all authorities concerned. It also discussed the approval of the document of using animals in research and scientific experiments. Besides, the meeting discussed how to promote the non-recovery document and the abortion document prepared by the committee to be applied in all health institutions in the Sultanate in cooperation with specialized agencies.