Minutes of the Council meeting held on 15 October 1999
Wed, 22 December 1999
Council (99) 4th Meeting
NUFFIELD COUNCIL ON BIOETHICS
Minutes of the Meeting held at 28 Bedford Square London WC1B 3EG
on 15 October 1999 at 10.30 am
PRESENT
Professor Ian Kennedy (Chairman)
Dr Anne McLaren, Professor Martin Raff, Professor Duncan Forrester, Professor Albert Weale, Lady Sonia Hornby, Professor Dame Margaret Turner-Warwick
APOLOGIES
Professor Martin Bobrow, Professor Brian Heap, Dr Brian Newbould, Derek Osborn, and Nick Ross.
SECRETARIAT
Dr Sandy Thomas, Susan Bull, Julia Fox and Yvonne Melia.
The Chairman paid tribute to Dr Brian Newbould, Dr Anne McLaren and Professor Dame Margaret Turner-Warwick for the great energy and wisdom which they had brought to their long and distinguished service to the Council. Although this would be their last official Council meeting they would join Council, and its new members, for lunch on Wednesday 19 January 2000. In addition, Sir Kenneth Calman would attend Council meetings for the duration of the Working Party on the Ethics of Clinical Research in Developing Countries.
The Chairman reminded members that Richard Best, Director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, would be joining Council members for lunch.
MINUTES OF (99) 3rd MEETING
1 These were agreed as an accurate record of the previous meeting.
MATTERS ARISING
2 Annual Report/Review: pressure of work during the summer had prevented the annual report being completed. The Secretariat had therefore made virtue out of necessity by deferring publication until January 2000. A more substantial review in accordance with the timetable in paper Information (99) 01 would now be produced. Drafts would be circulated to Council members for comment and members should inform the Secretariat if there were periods of time within the timetable when they would be unavailable to make comment. In future, an Annual Report would be produced each year. This would be the principal public document by which the Council was accountable to its sponsors. The Chairman emphasised that the Annual Report and the Business Plan were important managerial outputs of the Council.
CHAIRMAN'S ITEMS
MEMBERSHIP Council (99) 27
3 The Chairman reported that four invitations to join Council had been accepted and announcements would be made in the New Year. It was agreed that while the Council's members were not seen as needing to be drawn from particular constituencies there was merit in seeking additional members in the fields of industry and clinical medicine.
4 Industry Three names had been proposed (Council (99) 27 Annex B). It was noted that this was a difficult area to cover given the conflict of interests that may arise, although someone recently retired might be a possibility. Further information on the three proposed candidates would be sought.
5 Medicine It was agreed that an additional member with wide ranging clinical experience would be valuable. The Chairman, Professor Dame Margaret Turner-Warwick and others would discuss further one proposed candidate and suggest two others over the next two to three weeks. It was agreed that a distinguished clinician was sought, preferably with national or international standing and a leader in medical education.
6 Deputy Chairman: The Chairman was continuing to have discussions with members about this appointment.
BUSINESS PLAN Council (99) 28
7 The plan (Council (99) 28) was now in its final form and would be sent to the funders later in the day with any final corrections incorporated. On October 1st, an initial meeting with the three funders had been held. At the meeting it was agreed that it would not be appropriate to avoid areas of interest simply because they involved political controversy and that the independence of the Council must be preserved. There had been support at the meeting for an expansion of the Council's work and it was hoped that the full amount applied for would be awarded. A decision was expected from the Nuffield Foundation and the MRC in November and the Wellcome Trust in the New Year. The staffing charts would be clarified and the title of the new senior post would be reconsidered.
8 The draft Memorandum of Understanding with the Nuffield Foundation was discussed. It was the starting point of formally setting out the relationship between the Nuffield Foundation and the Council. The document would remain a Memorandum of Understanding rather than a Constitution, to preserve fluidity. It may need to be extended to the other funders in due course.
DIRECTOR'S REPORT
GENETICALLY MODIFIED CROPS:
THE SOCIAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES Council (99) 29
9 Discussion after the last meeting had focused on whether it would be appropriate to meet other bodies who held opposing views in this debate. The Working Party had since been consulted but the general view was that the moment for such a meeting had passed. However, the opportunity had arisen for the Secretariat to co-host a meeting with the ISAAA for a distinguished delegation of senior scientists from East Asia. Some Working Party members and many of the groups involved in the debate about GM Crops had taken part and the discussions had been very illuminating. The ISAAA Chairman, Dr Clive James, had expressed interest in inviting some members of the Working Party to SE Asia in Spring 2000 to discuss the findings of the report.
10 Follow-up of the Report was continuing. Over 2000 copies of the Report had been downloaded from the website and the number of downloaded reports were increasing monthly. Council (99) 29 listed the presentations about the Report which had been or were to be given by the Secretariat and Working Party members. More recently, Professor Michael Lipton had been asked to give the annual Crawford lecture at the CGIAR meeting in Washington and Professor Alan Ryan had been invited to participate at a Cabinet meeting. It was noted that this Report was similar to that on xenotransplantation in that its status was gradually coming to be seen as a benchmark.
RE-ORGANISATION OF THE SECRETARIAT Council (99) 30
11 The Director outlined changes that had taken place within the Secretariat. A database with a resource directory was now in place with some 300 entries to date. The Secretariat wished to encourage Council members to submit contact details of individuals or organisations they felt should be included. An invitation for people to submit their details and interests on the website for inclusion in the database would also be considered.
COUNCIL PRESENTATION AT 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE SWISS SOCIETY OF BIOMEDIC ETHICS SYMPOSIUM, LUGANO
12 Lady Sonia Hornby had represented the Council at this meeting in Lugano. She reported that the Swiss were lobbying for a Bioethics Commission in Switzerland and that the discussion centred on how various countries formulated bioethics guidance. The importance of forging international links was acknowledged and the Chairman thanked Lady Hornby on behalf of the Council.
MAIN BUSINESS
ETHICS OF CLINICAL RESEARCH
IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: PROGRESS REPORT Council (99) 31
13 Sir Kenneth Calman had accepted the invitation to Chair the Working Party. Five acceptances had been received from members of the Working Party. It was hoped that the first meeting of the Working Party would take place before Christmas.
14 The Director reported that other national and international bodies such as the newly established Global Ethics Forum, the World Health Organisation, and the National Institutes of Health were considering the ethical issues arising from clinical research in developing countries. Close links with these organisations would be maintained.
CONSULTATION ON THERAPEUTIC CLONING
AND WORKSHOP Council (99) 32
15 This consultation was an example of how issues on which prompt action was called for could be handled by the Council in future. The CMO Expert Group had said it would welcome a response by the Nuffield Council on ethical issues arising from therapeutic cloning. The difficulties of getting people together at such short notice had led to a Roundtable meeting rather than a Workshop. The Roundtable had proved to be a very effective means of identifying and discussing the relevant issues. The Chairman thanked Professor Martin Bobrow, Dr Anne McLaren and Lady Sonia Hornby for their participation. Professor Tom Baldwin, who would be joining the Council in January, had been a very helpful participant, as had Professor Sandy McCall-Smith who had accepted the Chairman's invitation to join the group. The record of the meeting would be used as the basis for a ten page paper which would be circulated to those who attended and to Council. The preparation of the paper was necessarily on a very tight schedule as it had to be submitted to the CMO Group before the end of the month. It would then be published on the website. Working in this way was a challenge to Council and it was necessary to show that it could respond quickly and carefully. The Director emphasised however that such 'rapid responses' placed a heavy demand on the Secretariat.
WORKSHOP ON GENES AND BEHAVIOUR Council (99) 33
16 The Workshop would be held on 3rd November, and it was anticipated that the Working Party would first meet in the New Year. Professor Martin Richards and Professor Martin Bobrow had been very helpful in drawing up a list of attendees. Additional epidemiological and philosophical expertise was being sought. The Workshop would be valuable in helping to determine the scope and the terms of reference for the Working Party and how this controversial subject could be best addressed.
WORKSHOP ON SAFETY/RISK Council (99) 34
17 Professor Albert Weale reported that the Politics and International Relations Section of the British Academy (BA) was putting together a Steering Committee to advise on the organisation and content of a conference.
18 It was considered what action Council should take and whether it should collaborate with the BA or undertake a separate initiative. The Council's response would depend on what focus the BA adopted for its meeting. It was noted that there was a lot of interest and work being done in the area of safety and risk and that this would be very helpful to the Council. One option for the Council could be to contemplate a broader, conceptual treatment of safety and risk, asking, for example, how far ideas could be carried over from one area to another. Such work may not be carried out for two to three years but the Council could maintain contact with other initiatives.
19 In addition to considering responses to specific risks, the Council may also wish to examine the question of how such responses should be communicated to the public and related to public policy. The public's apparent assumption of a right to be safe also raised wider questions of expectations. The Council agreed to proceed on two fronts. The Council would collaborate with the BA. It would also plan for a preliminary Workshop, to be held next year, with the emphasis being on safety.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
Forward Look Seminar 2000
20 The seminar would be held in central London on 17 May. The programme would be considered at the next Council meeting and an evening dinner with a speaker should be included. Suggestions for after dinner speakers were requested.
Items for Information (Information (99) 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)
21 These were noted and Council members were reminded to return their Declarations of Interest.
DATES OF MEETINGS FOR 2000
Wednesday 19 January 2000
Wednesday 29 March
Wednesday 21 June
Wednesday 11 October
all commencing at 10.30 am, followed by lunch
Last Updated Mon, 7 June 2004