Contemporary European Perspectives on the Ethics of End of Life Care / Philosophy and Medicine Bd.136 (PDF)

(Florence, Italy) with which he is collaborating to promote a theory of dialogue in bioethics. He has been invited by UNESCO to describe his method of teaching and chosen as the 'regional bioethics expert' in the Mediterranean. He is frequently invited as a keynote speaker in international meetings.

He has participated in several FP projects including Euroscreen, Privireal, Privileged, BioTEthed, Patient-Partner, EUPATI and others and has been invited by the EC to give talks in Bratislava and Bucharest. He also lectured at the United Nations Institute on Aging (INIA) in their diploma in Gerontology.


Bert Gordijn is Professor and Director of the Institute of Ethics at Dublin City University in Ireland. He has studied Philosophy and History in Utrecht, Strasbourg and Freiburg in Breisgau. In 1995 he was awarded a doctorate in Philosophy from the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, followed by a doctorate in Bioethics from the Radboud University Nijmegen in 2003. Bert has been a Visiting Professor at Lancaster University (UK), Georgetown University (USA), the National University of Singapore, the Fondation Brocher (Switzerland), and Yenepoya University (Mangalore, Karnataka, India). He has served on Advisory Panels and Expert Committees of the European Chemical Industry Council, the European Patent Organisation, the Irish Department of Health and UNESCO. Bert is Editor-in-Chief of two book series: "The International Library of Ethics, Law and Technology" and "Advances in Global Bioethics" as well as a peer reviewed journal: "Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy", all published by Springer. He is Secretary of the European Society for Philosophy of Medicine and Healthcare and President of the International Association of Education in Ethics.


Francesca Pistoia is Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of L'Aquila. She completed her degree summa cum laude in medicine and surgery, and thereafter specialized in neurology summa cum laude, at the University of L'Aquila. She earned a PhD in Internal Medicine and Applied Immunology at the same University. She has contributed to 95 papers (83 in peer-reviewed international journals and 12 in Italian journals). She has presented her research at national and international congresses (resulting in 71 abstracts and communications). Her research is mainly focused on the topic of diagnosis, prognosis and rehabilitation of patients with severe brain injury with the aim of implementing validated assessment tools to identify physical, cognitive and behavioural disabilities and quantify rehabilitation-related outcomes. Research topics include: the evaluation of patients with disorders of consciousness (vegetative state and minimally conscious state) as a consequence of severe brain injury: her studies in this area have been aimed at evaluating the neurobiological and behavioral factors, which may influence the recovery of consciousness, and the implementation of new therapeutical approaches; the identification of disorders of motor imagery and the perception of emotions in patients with locked-in syndrome. She also contributed to research addressing the epidemiology of cerebrovascular diseases and of Parkinson's disease in population-based registries, and the role of comorbidities in headache pathogenesis and of behavioral therapies in patients with chronic headache. She serves as a member of the Ethical Committee of the University of L'Aquila.