will be held In Rome, Saturday 10 June 2023 from 10 to 16, an important general assembly of the Luca Coscioni Association for the Freedom of Scientific Research (-> Link event). Moreover, starting at 16:00, the Luca Coscioni Society will descend on Piazza della Repubblica to take part in the “Pride” of Rome.
The General Council met to discuss starting from this working document that was prepared with Professor Gilberto Corbellini.
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Individual liberties and science, in a scary world
The Luca Coscioni Association for the Freedom of Scientific Research was born twenty years ago. It was the first time in decades that the problem of political and religious interference with freedom of research had been resolved, not only in Italy in those years. This happened because, in some countries, religious and conservative ideologies totemized the human embryo, precisely at a time when even genetic modifications to improve plants were censored in Europe.
Over the years, the ALC has directed its battles on the observation that freedom of science is the moral and political prerequisite for the safe and effective operation of any liberal democracy. Science is not free in a totalitarian context, but democracy is not liberal either if it does not encourage research whose goals are controlled on the basis of transparent evidence and not on the basis of political and religious prejudices.
The world has changed constantly, before history but above all in the course of history. For at least three hundred years it has been constantly improving. Despite wars, famines and social unrest, revolutions and dictatorships, inequality, etc. Which existed until the middle of the last century, from any empirical point of view, we examine the reality in which we live, as Barack Obama said in 2017, we have never enjoyed so much luxury and freedom as in the first 20 years of this century. And this, continued the former US president, was almost exclusively thanks to science.
There seem to be difficulties today in using science as evidence. Even more so than those who interviewed Luca Coscioni and the ALC at the outset to make them a guide to more effective policy. There are problems and uncertainties due to global warming and the war in Ukraine is destroying an important area for the future of food on the planet, while repositioning is taking place at different levels in terms of military and political alliances that make the future more uncertain. . Uncertainty spreads and generates polarizations that threaten individual freedoms.
Liberal values and principles, particularly individual freedom to choose according to one’s preferences regarding food, sex, how to reproduce, how to take a vacation from the world, how to treat oneself, employ foreigners, what technologies to use, etc. I’m in the discussion. There is a growing trend that individual choices should be censored in the name of defending traditions, value systems or local practices, that is, there are collective values that can be identified as national that must be protected and for this reason individual preferences and freedoms must be taken off the agenda.
The upcoming conference is an opportunity to analyze what is or could be the impact of innovations and uncertainties involving scientific research, social conditions and medical practices, For the future of individual freedom. Below are the possible topics
Research on embryonic stem cells and the future of regenerative therapies.
The right to try ineffective treatments.
Individual freedom and the challenges of climate change.
Economic challenges of advanced therapies and orphan diseases.
Degenerative death and individual end-of-life choices.
Individual freedom in the time of genomic and precision medicine.
Neuroscientific/pharmacological innovations and mental health options
Growing mental disorders among young people and the role of social media.
Ideological polarization and the crisis of liberal democracies.
Artificial intelligence and individual freedom.
Innovations in Agriculture: Freeing Europe from Precautionary Principle.
What are the instructions to form citizens more capable of making decisive or free decisions?
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Added to this document was another document sent by Philomena Gallo and Marco Capato, secretary and treasurer of the Luca Coscioni Association, for a discussion in which the European plan could be considered the most appropriate of the possible reforms.
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Is it possible to bring the struggles of the Luca Coscioni Association into a pan-European dimension?
This is one of the questions that we will try to answer at the General Council of the Luca Coscioni Society, on June 10 in Rome.
In the text of the invitation, Gilberto Corbellini wrote, among other things:
Liberal values and principles (particularly individual freedom to choose according to one’s preferences regarding food, sexuality, how to reproduce, how to vacation the world, how to treat oneself, employ foreigners, what technologies to use, etc..) I’m in for the discussion. There is a growing trend that individual choices should be censored in the name of defending traditions, value systems or local practices, that is, there are collective values that can be identified as national that must be protected and for this reason individual preferences and freedoms must be taken off the agenda.
This is the problem we must try to address.
The “Coscione Method” has already provided answers, without having to seek permission from official politics: civil disobedience, judicial appeals, activating the tools of popular initiative.
Current political events present us with important urgings: the “immediate freedom” law to comply with Kabatu Antonian’s sentence, mass civil disobedience, the joint parliamentary group on abortion, and opposition to trying to make procreation an “international crime” for others.
To try to give an answer also to the structural question posed by Corbellini, we share a pan-European direct popular action project, developed on the occasion of the Eumans Congress in Gdansk.
We do this while recognizing the difficulties in terms of resources – especially human resources, from the “hard-line ruling class” one might once say – necessary to make it happen. We still think it important to trace a possible trend, and discuss it together, trusting in the intellectual and political generosity of those who will take part in the general council:
The European Union can do that
A pan-European program and alliance for “democracy, ecology and freedom beyond borders”.
We the undersigned
We are committed to activating the tools of civic engagement to improve the quality of life, the ecosystem and democracy in Europe.
In particular, we undertake to promote and/or support the pool of signatures on a set of European Citizens’ Initiatives (ICE), with the following objectives, which we share in whole or in part and which we hope will soon be discussed by the EU institutions:
– strengthening democracy, including through lottery rallies and digital technologies;
– Exit fossil fuels by 2035, also through eco-shifting taxes
– Emphasizing the right to enjoy the benefits of science, starting with stem cell research against rare diseases;
A human rights-focused approach to cannabis
Obtaining narcotic drugs
Assisted voluntary death as a basic human right
Abortion as a basic human right
– Ending violence at the borders and ensuring a dignified reception of migrants
European welfare: income and basic services
Without necessarily embracing all individual objectives – and recognizing that many other issues can and should be addressed – we consider the civic engagement method of placing the EU at the service of man and the ecosystem as an indispensable step for providing a non-ideological response to the multiple crises that threaten our societies, beyond the borders of states. nationalism.
The coalition and committees that promote individual initiatives are open to any type of organization – associations, political parties, trade unions – interested in activating European institutions to promote basic rights and European “common benefits”, so that the technical-scientific revolution. Everyone can benefit humans.
It is time to find new forms of assembly and participation to defend democracy in a more concrete way: by practicing it, starting with the European dimension as the most advanced nucleus of – if vastly incomplete and deficient, and therefore to be radically reformed – transnational democracy.
L’Associazione Luca Coscioni is a non-profit association for social promotion. Among its priorities are the affirmation of civil liberties and human rights, particularly those related to science, self-administered personal assistance, removal of architectural barriers, choices at the end of life, legalization of euthanasia, and access to medical and universal cannabinoids. Science control and self-determination laws and policies.
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