Minutes of the Council meeting held on 14 October 2004
Wed, 17 November 2004
Council (04) 4th Meeting
NUFFIELD COUNCIL ON BIOETHICS
Minutes of the Meeting held at 28 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3JS
on 14 October, 2004 at 10.30 am
PRESENT
Professor Sir Bob Hepple QC FBA (Chairman)
Professor Catherine Peckham (Deputy Chair)
Professor Tom Baldwin
Professor Margot Brazier
Professor Sir Kenneth Calman
Professor Peter Harper
The Rt Reverend Richard Harries
Professor Peter Lipton
Lord Plant of Highfield
Professor Herbert Sewell
Baroness Perry of Southwark
Professor Dame Marilyn Strathern
Dr Alan Williamson
APOLOGIES: Professor Roger Brownsword, Professor Martin Raff, Professor Peter Smith and Mr Nick Ross
SECRETARIAT: Dr Sandy Thomas, Dr Catherine Moody, Harald Schmidt, Caroline Rogers,
Julia Fox, Elaine Talaat-Abdalla and Mun-Keat Looi
The Chairman welcomed new members of the Council: Professor Margot Brazier who would serve as a co-opted member whilst chairing the Working Party on the ethics of prolonging life in fetuses and the newborn and Lord Plant of Highfield. Apologies had been received from Professor Roger Brownsword, who was also a new member.
MINUTES OF (04) 3rd MEETING
1 It was agreed that the Minutes were an accurate record of the meeting held on 23 June, 2004.
MATTERS ARISING
2 There were no matters arising, other than those identified on the agenda.
CHAIRMAN’S ITEMS
MEMBERSHIP
Council (04) 37
3 The Chairman reported that he and the Director would like to develop a more open and accountable process for appointing new members. He proposed that the Subgroup be asked to advise on a possible scheme for future recruitment, noting the processes of advertisement, shortlisting and interview used by other bodies such as the Nuffield Foundation, the Human Genetics Commission and the Medical Research Council. Members endorsed this proposal. Members agreed to postpone further recruitment of new members until the likely timetable for the new appointment process was known.
FORWARD LOOK MEETING 2005
4 The Director outlined plans for the Forward Look meeting in 2005. There would be an evening reception, the highlight of which would be a lecture by a distinguished speaker from the US with an outstanding international reputation in bioethics. This individual would also participate in the discussions during the next day. Part of the purpose of the reception was to acknowledge the contributions of all those who had assisted the Council over the years, and especially past members of Working Parties. The subject of the lecture would be the speaker’s global vision of forthcoming major issues in bioethics, arising during the next ten years.
5 Council members made some suggestions for invitees and proposed that a European bioethics expert should be invited, as a possible discussant of the lecture. The individual should also be invited to the Forward Look meeting on the following day.
6 Further suggestions should be sent to the Secretariat within the next ten days.
MAIN BUSINESS
HRRDC II SOUTH AFRICA
Council (04) 38
7 The Director reported that the revisions arising from the comments from the peer reviewers had nearly all been incorporated into the HRRDC II report. The Council agreed that the Paper should be launched in January 2005. The title of the report should be simplified, perhaps to “The Ethics of Research Related to Healthcare in Developing Countries: a follow up Report” or similar.
WORKING PARTY ON THE ETHICS OF RESEARCH INVOLVING ANIMALS
Council (04) 39
8 The Chair of the Working Party’s reported on recent progress and outlined draft revisions to the Report which had been agreed in light of peer review. Members noted the general comments by peer reviewers, that the final Report would be an excellent reference document and provide an authoritative and thorough overview of the scientific and ethical issues raised by RIA. The reviewers had evenly divided views on various aspects of the draft Report, which suggested that the balance was about right.
9 Members of the Council then commented on specific sections of the draft Report. The Council asked the Chair to discuss options for launching the Report with the members of the Working Party and to report back to the Council.
WORKING PARTY ON THE ETHICS OF PROLONGING LIFE IN FETUSES AND THE NEWBORN
Council (04) 40
10 Professor Brazier reported on the first meeting of the Working Party. The issues to be addressed were sensitive and of great complexity, and no-one expected there to be ‘magical’ solutions. An important part of the work would be to examine the case law. Until recently, most of the cases where doctors and parents had disagreed on the best course of action for a particular child had been heard privately. However the case of Charlotte Wyatt had now been heard in open court and a second case was about to start. As a result, there had been considerable publicity in the media and in some instances, the Council had been approached for comment. Where possible, comments had been provided, taking care not to pre-empt the views of the Working Party. The exercise had been helpful in that it had served to raise the profile of the Working Party and drawn attention to the forthcoming consultation, which would take place in the spring of 2005.
11 The Working Party had made some minor amendments to the terms of reference, as described in the paper. The Council agreed to these amendments.
WORKSHOP ON THE ETHICS OF PUBLIC HEALTH
Council (04) 41
12 The Director reported on the Workshop held in July 2004. Those attending had been clear that there was substantial scope for discussion on the ethics of public health. She proposed that a Subgroup should be set up to develop terms of reference if the Council should decide to set up a new Working Party. Decisions would be needed on the scope of the topic and on suitable case studies, because of the wide-ranging nature of the topic. The scope of the Working Party would influence the membership.
13 It was agreed that although there were many topics which could be chosen to provide case studies, emphasis should be given to the principal central theme of individual choice and community benefit. What was needed was a readable account of the principles behind issues such as choice and consent. Areas discussed included the use of personal data, the advertising of medicines, vaccination, obesity, smoking, principles for conducting research in public health and the possible shortfalls of current legislation and other regulation governing communicable diseases not presently controlled through vaccination. There was a comment that at present, the dividing line between monitoring of public health, and research on public health was unclear.
14 The Council agreed to set up a new Working Party on the ethics of public health and proposed that Professors Peter Smith, Sir Kenneth Calman, Catherine Peckham, Tom Baldwin and Lord Plant be invited to form a Subgroup to draw up terms of reference and advise on membership. It would be important to appoint a Chairman for the Working Party as soon as possible.
DIRECTOR’S REPORT
FIVE YEAR FUNDING BID
Council (04) 42
15 The Director explained that the Secretariat was beginning to prepare a proposal for funding of the Council. This would request a further five years of support, from 2007 until 2011. The proposal would need to have a substantial section on follow up activities, which had become an increasingly important part of the Secretariat’s work. Applying for additional short term funding might be one way to support one-off projects, as had occurred with the South African Workshop. There was also support for having a Council-owned programme of lectures, because this would help fulfil the mission to contribute to public debate. These might be held not only in London, but in different regions of the UK.
16 It was suggested that the bid should incorporate outcome measures that the funders could use to assess the success of the proposed programme of activities. The Secretariat might also conduct or commission a feasibility study to assess the impact of carrying out larger projects or projects that were even more substantial.
BI-LATERAL MEETING WITH NATIONALER ETHIKRAT, GERMANY
Council (04) 43
17 The Chairman reported that the first bilateral meeting with the Nationaler Ethikrat has been very useful. The topics discussed had been reproductive and therapeutic cloning and the ethics of public health. The Council had already been invited to a reciprocal meeting in Berlin during 2005. It was suggested that the Secretariat should prepare a brief for Council members that mapped out the leading European organisations involved in bioethics and their roles, activities and influences. This would be helpful in deciding attendances at future meetings with European bodies.
PROPOSED 2ND BI-LATERAL MEETING WITH
COMITÉ CONSULTATIF NATIONAL D'ETHIQUE, FRANCE
18 The form of the NER meeting in July would be repeated for the CCNE meeting as it had worked well. Currently 10 members of the Council and 8 representatives from CCNE wee able to attend.
GENETIC SCREENING
Council (04) 44
19 Members noted the scope of the report being prepared to follow up the Council’s 1993 report on Genetic Screening: ethical issues. The next draft would be discussed at the second meeting of the Steering Group, to be held in November. The Council also noted the report from Tom McBride, who had worked with the Secretariat as an intern over the summer, undertaking research for the project. The Council expressed thanks both to Tom and to Nicola Perrin, who was until recently Public Liaison Manager. Their hard work had been greatly appreciated by the Steering Committee.
TO REPORT
BIOETHICS BRIEFING:
ACTIVITIES OF OTHER ORGANISATIONS
Council (04) 45
20 The Briefing was received and noted.
DECLARATION ON UNIVERSAL NORMS ON BIOETHICS BY THE INTERNATIONAL BIOETHICS COMMITTEE OF UNESCO
Council (04) 46
21 The Assistant Director reported that the Council had responded to the International Bioethics Committee with substantial comments on the first draft of the Declaration. It was clear that further work on this document would be needed. The Council noted the draft Declaration and expressed gratitude to Professor Baldwin, Professor Lipton and Professor Brownsword for contribution input in this regard. It was agreed that the Council should continue to contribute to this debate.
FINANCIAL REPORT: MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTS TO 31 AUGUST 2004
Council (04) 47
22 The Management Accounts for the period up to 31 August 2004 were received and noted.
COUNCIL’S REVISED DRAFT WORK PLAN FOR 2004/2005
Council (04) 48
23 The Council’s revised Draft Work Plan was received and noted.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
24 The Chairman commented that the new Web site was clear and easy to use.
25 The Director announced that Catherine Joynson had been appointed as the new Communications and External Affairs Manager. She was currently at the Institute of Biology and would begin work with the Secretariat in January, 2005.
QUARTERLY BULLETIN
Information (04) 07
26 For information.
WEB REPORT
Information (04) 08
27 The web report figures were noted.
MEETING DATES FOR 2005
Meetings of the Council in 2005: (all commencing at 10.30 am)
Thursday 20 January
Thursday 17 March
Wednesday 22 June
Wednesday 19 October
Forward Look Seminar: evening event
Wednesday 11 May and full-day meeting Thursday 12 May
All meetings will be held at 28 Bedford.
Last Updated Fri, 19 November 2004