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 – 10.50 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: Prof. Elena Postigo, Academic Director of the International Chair of Bioethics Jérôme Lejeune. Corresponding Member of the Pontifical Academy for Life. Spain.
• Prof. Juan Arana Cañedo-Argüelles, Professor of Philosophy of Science at the Universidad de Sevilla. Full Member of the Real Academia de Ciencias Morales y Políticas. Spain.
• Questions & Discussion.

10.50 am – 11.20 am    Coffee break

11.20 am – 12.10 pm    Lecture: 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: Ms. Aude Dugast, Academic Director of the International Chair of Bioethics Jérôme Lejeune, French section. France.
• Prof. Bernard Schumacher, Professor of Philosophy and Ethics at Université de Fribourg and at Institut Philanthropos. Switzerland.
• Questions & Discussion.

12.10pm – 1.00 pm      Lecture: DOES A NATURAL LAW EXIST?

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: Ms. Aude Dugast, Academic Director of the International Chair of Bioethics Jérôme Lejeune, French section. France.
• Prof. Thibaud Collin, Philosopher and essayist, specialist in Moral and Political Philosophy, Professor of Philosophy in Preparatory Classes at Collège Stanislas in Paris. France.
• Questions & Discussion.

1.00 pm – 2.30 pm       Lunch break

2.30 pm – 3.20 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.
• Questions & Discussion.

3.20 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: Enrico Bertini, MD, Director of the Unit of Neuromuscular and Neurodegenerative Disorders, Translational Pediatrics and Clinical Genetics at Bambino Gesù Children’s Research Hospital. Italy.
• Prof. Teresa Perucho Alcalde, Clinical and Molecular Geneticist of the Unit of Genomic Medicine at Clínica Universidad de Navarra. Spain.
• Prof. Emmanuel Sapin, Professor Emeritus of Pediatric and Neonatal Surgery at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire CHU de Dijon. France.
• Robin Pierucci, MD, MA, Neonatologist. Director and Founder of a Fetal Concerns Clinic. Co-Chair American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) ProLife Committee. Member of the Catholic Medical Association. United States of America.
• Questions & 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: Mr. Guillermo A. Morales Sancho, PhD, Lawyer specialized in Constitutional and Human Rights Law. Legal Counselor in Europe for ADF International in Vienna. Austria.
• Mr. Grégor Puppinck, PhD, Director of the European Centre for Law and Justice. France.
• Prof. Jorge Nicolás Lafferriere, Doctor of Legal Sciences at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina. Director of the Centro de Bioética, Persona y Familia. Argentina.
• 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)
• Mr. Paul Sugy, Journalist and author of L’extinction de l’homme. Le projet fou des antispécistes. France. (TBC)
• Questions & Discussion.

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.
• Angelo Carfì, MD, PhD, Doctor of Astronomy. Surgeon at the Policlinico Universitario Fondazione Agostino Gemelli. Italy.
• Mr. Olivier Bonnassies, Entrepreneur. Graduate of Polytechnique and Theology from the Institut Catholique de Paris. Author of Dieu, la science, les preuves : l’aube d’une révolution. France.
• Questions & 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: Mr. Pablo Siegrist, General Manager of the Jérôme Lejeune Foundation. Spain.
• Mr. Jean-Marie Le Méné, President of the Fondation Jérôme Lejeune. Ordinary Member of the Pontifical Academy for Life. France.
• Questions & Discussion.

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.