Minutes of the Meeting held on 26 June 2007
Mon, 3 September 2007
Council (07) 3rd Meeting
NUFFIELD COUNCIL ON BIOETHICS
Minutes of the Meeting held at 28 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3JS on 26 June 2007 at 10.30am
PRESENT
Professor Sir Bob Hepple QC FBA (Chairman)
Professor Sir Kenneth Calman
Professor Sian Harding
Lord Richard Harries
Professor Peter Harper
Professor Søren Holm
Dr Rhona Knight
Lord John Krebs
Professor Peter Lipton
Professor Alison Murdoch
Dr Bronwyn Parry
Professor Hugh Perry
Professor Nikolas Rose
Professor Peter Smith
APOLOGIES
Professor Roger Brownsword
Professor Ray Hill
Mr Anatole Kaletsky
Professor Lord Raymond Plant
Dr Carole McCartney
SECRETARIAT
Hugh Whittall, Harald Schmidt, Katharine Wright, Catherine Joynson, Carol Perkins, Julia Trusler and Caroline Rogers
The Chairman welcomed Katharine Wright to her first meeting as a new Assistant Director.
This would be the last meeting for Lord John Krebs and on behalf of the Council the Chairman expressed thanks for his contributions to the Council and in particular his chairing of the Public Health Working Party.
MINUTES OF (07) 2nd MEETING
1 It was agreed that the Minutes were an accurate record of the meeting held on 21 March 2007.
CHAIRMAN’S ITEMS
2 There were no Chairman’s items.
MAIN BUSINESS
WORKING PARTY ON PUBLIC HEALTH: ETHICAL ISSUES Council (07) 21
3 Lord Krebs, as Chairman of the Working Party, gave an introduction to some of the salient issues that had emerged in the group’s discussion. Members of the Council welcomed the report and also made a number of detailed comments. The Chairman thanked Lord Krebs for the professional way he had chaired the Working Party. It was agreed that the final version of the draft Report would be circulated to the subgroup around mid July.
WORKING GROUP ON BIOINFORMATION FORFORENSIC PURPOSES Council (07) 22
4 This session was chaired by Professor Peter Smith. The Chairman of the Council, in his capacity as Chair of the Working Group, reported that he thought the Group had worked extremely well together and had come to some firm conclusions. Members were asked to comment on the draft document.
5 The Council thanked the Chairman and the Working Group for their work in producing an interesting and well thought through document that tackled the issues in a very timely way. Members agreed that the document should be called a Report rather than a Discussion Paper, especially given the nature of the recommendations. It was suggested that how documents were referred to may need further discussion in the future. The Chairman thanked Dr McCartney for her hard work and suggested that contracting out the work to someone who was an expert in the field had worked well.
6 It was agreed that substantive changes in the draft Report would be sent to the members of the subgroup for any final comments, before being signed off by Professor Peter Smith, after consultation with the Chairman.
WORKING PARTY ON NEURODEGENERATIVE
DISEASES Council (07) 23
7 The Assistant Director reported that following the Workshop held on 7 March on the ethical issues arising from neurodegenerative diseases, the Council decided at its March meeting to proceed with a new Working Party. Members were informed that Professor Tony Hope of the Ethox Centre in Oxford had agreed to chair the Working Party and would be meeting the Director and Assistant Director in July to finalise arrangements.
8 Suggestions for fields of expertise required for members of the Working Party were considered and members were asked to forward any names for membership or further fields of expertise to the Secretariat by 3 July. Members agreed that the Chair, after consultation with the Deputy Chair and Professor Hope could finalise the list and issue invitations for membership of the Working Party.
9 Members were asked to comment on the draft terms of reference. It was agreed that ‘especially’ should be deleted from paragraph 2(d) and ‘within a country’ should be deleted from paragraph 3. There was some discussion about whether the terms of reference sufficiently covered new and novel interventions. It was noted that they had been developed to prevent the Working Party getting too involved in discussions about the biology and that such advances could be covered by considering ‘capacity and consent’ in 2(b). It was agreed that the Working Party should be made aware of this issue.
FORWARD LOOK LECTURE AND SEMINAR Council (07) 24
10 The Communications and External Affairs Manager reported that the 2007 Forward Look seminar, held on 10 May had focused on two topics: the implications of the human genome project, and the rationing of healthcare resources. Although the discussions on the implications of the human genome project raised some interesting issues, there seemed to be general consensus among participants that the topic of rationing healthcare resources was a higher priority.
11 Members agreed that the next step would be to organise a one-day Workshop dedicated to exploring the rationing of healthcare resources further, hopefully in December. It was agreed that in preparing the terms of reference for the Workshop, thought should be given to the Council’s terms of reference and the funders consulted if necessary.
12 It was noted that Professor Göran Hermerén from the Department of Medical Ethics at Lund University in Sweden and Chairman of the European Group on Ethics, had agreed to give the 2008 Forward Look lecture. The lecture would be on Wednesday 7 May 2008, followed by the Forward Look Seminar on Thursday 8 May.
13 It was reported that the Secretariat were exploring the idea of establishing a ‘Future Work Sub-group’ of the Council and that they would be in contact with members with more details shortly.
DIRECTOR’S REPORTDIRECTOR’S REPORT
APPOINTMENT OF A NEW CHAIR
14 The Director reported that Professor Hepple’s period as the Council’s Chair would come to an end in December. The process for finding a replacement had begun and the position had been advertised in the Guardian and The Times. Members had received a letter from Sharon Witherspoon, Acting Director of the Nuffield Foundation, asking for any thoughts on the matter and any suggestions of individuals that members think might be suitable.
TRILATERAL MEETING WITH CCNE AND NE 2007 Council (07) 25
15 The Director reported that the trilateral meeting had been held on 4 June and had been a helpful and interesting meeting. The three organisations had discussed the ethical issues in biometrics, the role and contribution of ethics advisory bodies and rationing of healthcare resources. The meeting had demonstrated that the three countries shared areas of concern. Participants agreed that the trilateral format had worked well and would be repeated if possible.
STAKEHOLDER BULLETIN
16 The Communications and External Affairs Manager reported that the Secretariat was proposing to send out an email newsletter three times a year as a way of regularly communicating with the Council’s stakeholders. Approximately 1000 people had expressed an interest in receiving updates of the Council’s work. The newsletter would also be published on the website and would contain news about current working parties, forthcoming presentations and events, job advertisements, Council vacancies and any other relevant news.
17 It was agreed that this was an excellent initiative, especially useful during periods of time when the Council was in between publishing reports. There would be an option to subscribe to the bulletin on the website.
TO REPORT
CRITICAL CARE DECISIONS IN FETAL AND NEONATAL MEDICINE: ETHICAL ISSUES
18 It was reported that dissemination of the Report was continuing, including useful meetings with the Royal College of Nursing and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
FINANCIAL REPORT FOR YEAR TO 30 APRIL Council (07) 26
19 It was noted that the apparent deficit shown in the financial report was due to the fact that the Nuffield Foundation’s contribution was not included under ‘grants and donations’. It was agreed that the Secretariat would look at how this might be made clearer when the accounts were presented at future meetings.
COUNCIL’S REVISED DRAFT WORK PLAN FOR 2007 Council (07) 27
20 The Council’s revised Work Plan was received and noted.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
21 Ethical review of the Council’s publications – The Director reported that the review from Professor John Harris and his colleague Sarah Chan had been received and would be an item on the October agenda. Copies would be circulated to members in the meantime.
22 Council meeting dates for 2008 – Possible dates would be circulated after the meeting. Members were asked to note in their diaries the Forward Look dates of Wednesday 7 and Thursday 8 May
QUARTERLY BULLETIN Information (07) 05
23 This paper was noted.
WEB REPORTInformation (07) 06
24 The web report figures were noted
Last Updated Mon, 3 September 2007