8.00 am – 9.00 am      Welcome and registration

9.00 am – 9.15 am       Opening speech

I have only one recommendation: the truth, the truth again, always the truth. Jérôme Lejeune

• Mr. Jean-Marie Le Méné, President of the Fondation Jérôme Lejeune. Ordinary Member of the Pontifical Academy for Life. France.
• Prof. Mónica López Barahona, President of the International Chair of Bioethics Jérôme Lejeune. Ordinary Member of the Pontifical Academy for Life. Spain.

9.15 am – 10.00 am     Inaugural lecture: SCIENCE AND BIOETHICS AT THE SERVICE OF TRUTH

The immense spread of the tree of science that covers humanity must not hide the light from us. Jérôme Lejeune

• Chair: Prof. Mónica López Barahona, President of the International Chair of Bioethics Jérôme Lejeune. Ordinary Member of the Pontifical Academy for Life. Spain.
• His Eminence Cardinal Willem Jacobus Eijk, Metropolitan Archbishop of Utrecht. Physician. Ordinary Member of the Pontifical Academy for Life. Netherland.

10.00 am – 10.45 am   Lecture: CAN IMMUTABLE TRUTH STAND UP TO THE TRUTHS OF SCIENCE?

There is no known divorce between today’s science and the religion of the past. Jérôme Lejeune

• Chair: (TBC)
• Prof. Juan Arana Cañedo-Argüelles, Professor of Philosophy at the Universidad de Sevilla. Member of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques. Spain.

10.45 am – 11.15 am    Coffee break

 11.15 am – 12.15 pm    Panel: CAN SCIENCE LEAD US TO TRUTH AND BY WHICH ROUTE?

Religion and science: how can there be a contradiction between the true and the verified? It’s always the latter that is late. Jérôme Lejeune

• Chair: (TBC)
• Prof. Bernard Schumacher, Professor of Philosophy and Ethics at the Université de Fribourg. Switzerland.
• Msgr. James P. Shea, President of the University of Mary. United States of America. (TBC)
• Questions & discussion

12.15 pm – 1.00 pm      Lecture: IS THERE AN OBJECTIVE LAW OF NATURE?

Humanity is now faced with the fact that its survival depends on the acceptance by all nations of moral precepts transcending all systems and speculations. Jérôme Lejeune

• Chair: (TBC)
• Prof. Rémi Brague, Emeritus Professor of Medieval and Arabic Philosophy at the Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. Holder of the Chair Romano Guardini at the Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität of Munich. Member of the Institut de France. France. (TBC)

1.00 pm – 2.30 pm       Lunch break

2.30 pm – 3.15 pm        Lecture: ETHICS OF THE SITUATION OR IN THE SITUATION? HOW TO ESTABLISH MORAL TRUTH IN BIOETHICAL ACTION

One sentence, just one, will dictate our conduct, the argument that does not deceive and which, moreover, judges everything, the very word of Jesus: “What you did to the least of these, you did to me”. Jérôme Lejeune

• Chair: Prof. Elena Postigo, Academic Director of the International Chair of Bioethics Jérôme Lejeune. Corresponding Member of the Pontifical Academy for Life. Spain.
• Prof. Stephan Kampowski, Professor of Philosophical Anthropology at the Pontificio Istituto Teologico “Giovanni Paolo II” per le Scienze del Matrimonio e della Famiglia. Italy.

3.15 pm – 4.45 pm        Panel: TRUTH AND MEDICAL DEONTOLOGY: THE CASE OF GENETIC COUNSELING

The man who could tell parents that their child is seriously ill, and not feel his heart sink at the thought of the pain that will overwhelm them, would not be worthy of our profession. But we don’t protect against misfortune by committing a crime; we don’t relieve the pain of one human being by killing another. Jérôme Lejeune

• Chair: Prof. Julio Tudela, Director of the Observatorio de Bioética at the Universidad Católica de Valencia. Spain. (TBC)
• Prof. Teresa Perucho Alcalde, Clinical and Molecular Geneticist of the Unit of Genomic Medicine at Clínica Universidad de Navarra. Spain. (TBC)
• Prof. Emmanuel Sapin, Professor Emeritus of Pediatric and Neonatal Surgery at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire CHU de Dijon. France.
• Representative from Catholic Medical Association, United States of America. (TBC)
• Questions and discussion

4.45 pm – 5.15 m          Coffee break

5.15 pm – 6.30 pm        Panel: TRUTH AND CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION

I’m going to have to speak out publicly to defend our patients. If I don’t defend them, I’m betraying them. Jérôme Lejeune

• Chair: (TBC)
• Mr. Grégor Puppinck, PhD, Director of the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ). France.
• Representative from the EPPC, United States of America. (TBC)
• Questions & Discussion

End of the first day.

8.30 am – 9.30 am       Registration

9.30 am – 10.15 am      Lecture: THE TRUTH ABOUT MAN: IS THE MAN AN ANIMAL LIKE ANY OTHER?

On this planet, the man is the only one who asks himself who he is, where he comes from, and sometimes hears the dreaded question: What have you done with your brother?  Jérôme Lejeune

• Chair: (TBC)
• Prof. Jean-Marie Meyer, Professor of Philosophy and Ethics at the Institut de Philosophie Comparée (IPC). France. (TBC)

10.15 am – 11.30 am     Panel: THE TRUTH AT THE BEGINNING OF HUMANITY: THE CREATION OF THE WORLD AND THE APPEARANCE OF MAN ON EARTH

The appearance of man is really quite astonishing to the most objective scientist. […] It’s hard to see how natural selection could have foreseen all this!  Jérôme Lejeune

• Chair: (TBC)
• Prof. Michael D. Taylor, Philosopher, Thomas More College of Liberal Arts. Author of the award-winning The Foundations of Nature: Metaphysics of Gift for an Integral Ecological Ethic. United States of America.
• Dr. Angelo Carfì, M.D., Surgeon, Doctor of Astronomy, Policlinico Universitario Fondazione Agostino Gemelli. Italy. (TBC)
• Mr. Olivier Bonnassies, Entrepreneur, graduate of Polytechnique and Theology from the Institut Catholique de Paris. Author of God, Science, the Proofs. France.
• Questions and discussion

11.30 am – 11.45 am    Break

11.45 am – 12.30 pm    Lecture: JÉRÔME LEJEUNE: WHEN THE PURSUIT OF TRUTH MAKES SCIENCE ADVANCE

Respecting human nature does not prevent progress, but rather stimulates it. Jérôme Lejeune

• Chair: (TBC)
• Mr. Jean-Marie Le Méné, President of the Fondation Jérôme Lejeune. Ordinary Member of the Pontifical Academy for Life. France.

12.30 pm – 1.00 pm     Closing speech

• Prof. Mónica López Barahona, President of the International Chair of Bioethics Jérôme Lejeune. Ordinary Member of the Pontifical Academy for Life. Spain.

End of the Conference.