On April 25, a group of 26 TMDU students from first to fifth year and 4 students from Imperial College London had the chance to gather at an event called “Discussion Café with Imperial College London” and discuss issues that the world has been facing in recent years--Population Explosion and Organ Transplantation.
It is estimated that by 2050, the world’s population will expand to 9 billion. It was interesting to discuss the possible causes and impact this could have on humankind, and propose measures we could take to counteract this. We also talked about organ transplantation. Currently, the number of transplants occurring in Japan is quite low, and we addressed many social and ethical issues in regard to this, including the topic of brain death. Both of these topics were broad, but definitely among the immense issues that we must take into consideration when thinking about the future. In both discussions we were able to successfully share our opinions from a broad perspective due to our different cultural backgrounds and discuss these issues deeply.
Even though the time was short, being able to have discussions with students from diverse cultural backgrounds, medical fields, and various stages of learning helped us to have a better understanding of these global issues and cultivate a broader perspective. Through this event it was possible to refine our problem-solving skills, and have the chance to form a network where we may assist each other in our endeavors to solve such problems in the future. Thank you to everyone who came out to participate in this event! It was a great success!
Reported by TMDU Student Task Force