Professor Dariusch Atighetchi was born in Milan. After attending scientific secondary school, he attended the Catholic University of Milan and obtained his degree in philosophy with maximum points, presenting a thesis entitled: Ethics, ontology and eschatology in the Zoroastrian religion.
Subsequently he received a diploma from the Italian Institute for Middle Eastern and Far Eastern Studies (Istituto Italiano per il Medio e l'Estremo Oriente, ISMEO).

For a number of years he attended postgraduate courses in bioethics at the Scientific Institute, San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, and worked at the Department of Medicine and Human Sciences at the same Institute.

He subsequently worked in the field of bioethics and Islamic medical ethics at the CA Nallino Institute for Eastern Studies, Rome.

Ho then went on to do research under Professor Francesco D’Agostino in the area Human Rights, Bioethics and Multi-ethnicity, receiving study grants from the Lercaro di Bologna Foundation for projects entitled The sick person in Muslim medicine and Ramadan and the Muslim patient: ethico-clinical problems. The research paper presenting the results of these studies was published in the book Il confronto interculturale: Dibattiti bioetici e pratiche giuridiche, edited by F Compagnoni and F D’agostino, San Paolo, Milano, 2003, 363-412.

For a number of years now Dariusch Atighetchi has been contract professor of Islamic Bioethics in the Faculty of Jurisprudence at the Second University of Naples. He has given numerous courses, lectures and seminars on Islamic bioethics at various other institutes including Insubria University Como, San Raffaele University Milan, Bicocca University Milan and also for the European Master’s Course in Bioethics (MEB-EMB) held by the Council for Europe at Brixen in 2001.

Professor Dariusch Atighetchi has published numerous scholarly articles in his field. His recent books: Islamic Bioethics: Problems and Perspectives, Springer, Berlin-Dordrecht, 2005 (in press) and Islam, Musulmani e Bioetica, Armando Editore, Rome, 2002 give a good insight into the breadth and scope of his work.