Habiba Al Safar

Habiba is a winner of the International L’Oréal-UNESCO Fellowship for Women in Science.

Habiba Al Safar is an Emirati geneticist, biomedical engineer and academic at Khalifa University. For her, consent and patient privacy are paramount. Also vital is respecting cultures.

I need to make sure everything complies with ethics.

– Habiba Al Safar, Emirati geneticist and biomedical engineer

She gives the example of the age when a patient can give consent. In the U.S., it’s 18. But in the UAE, where children frequently depend on their families longer, it’s 21. “Always we talk to the guardians,” she says.

Habiba Al Safar is an Emirati geneticist, biomedical engineer and academic at Khalifa University. For her, consent and patient privacy are paramount. Also vital is respecting cultures.

She gives the example of the age when a patient can give consent. In the U.S., it’s 18. But in the UAE, where children frequently depend on their families longer, it’s 21. “Always we talk to the guardians,” she says.

DILEMMA: What would you say to the following situation? A small biotechnology venture has created a potentially life-saving bioengineered “skin” for patients with severe burns. Cells used for this are derived from porcine sources.

Patients and doctors from some religious communities might not want to use the product because of this, but assuming the product formulation can’t be changed, how could the company balance saving lives with honoring the religious beliefs of potential consumers?

Katrina Bramstedt

Katrina Bramstedt is a bioethicist specializing in organ donation, transplant and medical devices. Read more›››

She’s the former chief executive of the Luxembourg Agency for Research Integrity, and prior worked for the FDA, as well as Philips and the Cleveland Clinic. An author of several books and over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, Bramstedt is an international speaker and researcher.

Notably, she co-created an organ-donation app with Johns Hopkins University Medical Center (USA) that significantly improves the chances of patients finding a living donor for their transplant. She completed fellowship training at UCLA School of Medicine and her Ph.D. in medicine from Monash University (Melbourne, Australia).‹‹‹ Read less

THE ETHICIST: In this situation there are two delicate matters in tension, creating a dilemma. Respecting people’s culture and religious values is extremely important as these values are special and closely held.

Saving lives is another important value as this propels lineage and keeps families together to enjoy life. In some religions and cultures such as Islam and Judaism, pork consumption is prohibited.

However, life-threatening situations change the context, and blanket prohibition is not the reality.

Consider the following: Skin is a vital organ serving as a protective barrier for the body, with a special immune function that helps fight infection. In the setting of life-threatening burns, such as chemical exposure, house fires or vehicle accidents, loss of large amounts of skin is critical and patients are at risk of severe infection, dehydration and death.

And often, there is a shortage of human donor skin, and other options are needed such bioengineered-skin technologies. Considering all of these facts, there may be religiously acceptable exceptions to the general rules against pork products.

Biotechnology companies developing products with ethical sensitivity should consult with potential consumers as well as a bioethics expert. Additionally, they should carefully create patient-education materials such as brochures and websites to proactively address ethical concerns, giving patients, families and physicians honest and detailed information so they can participate in shared decision-making about product use and alternatives.