UPDATE Summer 2007
Welcome to the first edition of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics UPDATE newsletter
We hope this will be a useful source of information about our work and activities. UPDATE will be published three times each year, in spring, summer and autumn, and will be available on our website. If you would like to sign up for UPDATE (or remove yourself from the mailing list), please email: update@nuffieldbioethics.org. We would also be delighted to receive any feedback on the format or content of the newsletter.
The forensic use of bioinformation: Report to be published 18 September 2007
Using the National DNA Database to search for DNA found at a crime scene increases the chance that the perpetrator will be identified. However, this and other forensic uses of bioinformation raise ethical questions. For example, is keeping the DNA profiles of victims, suspects and people who are not eventually charged justified by the need to fight crime? Should children’s profiles be kept on the Database? Should anyone other than the police, e.g. researchers, have access to the Database? A Working Group, set up in September 2006 to consider these and other questions, will publish its conclusions on 18 September 2007. Contact us (see below) to book your place at the launch seminar or request a copy of the Report.
Public health: Report to be published 13 November 2007
What are the responsibilities of governments, individuals and other parties, such as industry and the media, in achieving a healthy society? And how can allowing individual choice be balanced with achieving community benefit? The Council set up a Working Party in 2005 to consider these and other ethical and social dilemmas raised by public health. The group is focusing on five case studies: infectious diseases (including vaccinations), obesity, smoking, alcohol and the fluoridation of water, and will publish its conclusions on 13 November 2007. Contact us (see below) to book your place at the launch seminar or request a copy of the Report.
New Working Party: neurodegenerative diseases
The Council has decided to set up a Working Party on neurodegenerative diseases. Ethical issues in relation to dementia and loss of capacity, and the implications of an ‘advance directive’ or ‘living will’, will be considered by the new group. We are delighted to announce that Tony Hope, Professor of Medical Ethics at the University of Oxford, has accepted the Council’s invitation to chair the Working Party. Further members will be identified and invited over the summer.
Education activities
The Council recommended in its Report on The Ethics of Research Involving Animals (2005) that balanced materials on this topic were needed for use in schools. Since then, the Council has been working with the Nuffield Curriculum Centre to produce such materials to help teachers run informed classroom debates. Some materials are currently being piloted and, subject to the feedback received, will be available to download from the Council and Curriculum Centre websites later in 2007.
Seeking Council members
The Council is looking to appoint new Council members with expertise in the following broad areas:
Cellular and molecular biology
Philosophy
Political science
Public health
Applications should be sent to the address below in the form of a short statement of interest accompanied by a CV by 10 August 2007. Further information is available on the website: www.nuffieldbioethics.org/go/aboutus/page_876.html
Forthcoming events
6th World Congress on Alternatives and Animal Use in the Life Sciences
21-25 August, Tokyo, Japan
Baroness Perry of Southwark will give a plenary lecture on 22 August on the Council's Report on The Ethics of Research Involving Animals.
www.ech.co.jp/wc6/index.html
The BA Festival 2007, York
Decisions at the edge of life: premature birth
10:00–11:30, 13 September 2007
When should premature babies receive life-sustaining treatment? In this discussion and debate session run by Ecsite-uk, participants will find out about the causes of premature birth and the impacts on the babies and their families. The Council has been working with Ecsite-uk as part of its project on Critical Care Decisions in Fetal and Neonatal Medicine.
www.the-ba.net/the-ba/Events/FestivalofScience/index.html
Contact us at: Email update@nuffieldbioethics.org; Tel +44 (0)20 7681 9619; The Nuffield Council on Bioethics, 28 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3JS, UK
Find out more about the Council at: http://www.nuffieldbioethics.org
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Last Updated Fri, 13 July 2007