I write to congratulate the organisers for the wonderfully conducted National Bioethics Conference at Bangalore in December 2007. I was particularly impressed by the high level of participation from young people in India, apart from your overseas delegates, and the insightful presentation and discussions. This augurs well for the future as such exposure to the ethical issues that confront us in this rapidly changing, pluralistic world, where profit drives the health “industry” in health care and research, and ethical teaching or examples of good ethical practice in the health science profession are suboptimal, should have a beneficial effect on the individuals and organisations that participated, and for those who come under their spheres of influence.

I do appreciate the tremendous effort and expense that went into organising this. I sincerely wish that you and your colleagues would continue to hold the event in years to come as I strongly believe that this country and region lacks any other forum where such a variety of participants and themes concerning bioethics may be shared. We have a surfeit of jamborees that masquerade as scientific conferences. The bioethics conference stood out on this barren horizon as a beacon of hope in India.