The Society for Experimental Biology regretfully reports that, due to
parliamentary business, the talk by Margaret Hodge due to take place on Tuesday
1 April has been cancelled. However, the Bioethics debate will still take
place. For more details see information below.

Entrance is FREE - all welcome.

This event has been organised by the Society for Experimental Biology as part
of its Annual Main Meeting. The meeting attracts some 1000 biologists
worldwide. For the full meeting programme please go to: www.sebiology.org
(click on Southampton Meeting).  For more information please contact Sarah
Blackford ([log in to unmask]).

SOCIETY FOR EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY
BIOETHICS DEBATE
Wednesday 2 April 2003, 2.00 - 3.30pm, Turner Sims Lecture Theatre

CHAIR: Dr Tom Wakeford is a biologist and action-researcher based at the
Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences Research Institute, University of Newcastle.

He is a member of a group of freelance practitioners called WhoSays? that has
undertaken commissions for bodies such as the UK Government Office of Science
and Technology, the National Consumer Council, Economic and Social Research
Council and most recently the Royal Society's "Science in Society" Programme.
During 2001 he toured India as part of the British Council's "Bright Sparks"
Festival of Science. His books and articles include Science for the Earth
(Wiley 1995) and Liaisons of Life (Wiley 2001). During the DNA 50th
anniversary, he has been one of the organisers of "Who Twists the Helix?"
(www.twistedhelix.org).

PROFILES OF SPEAKERS

Professor John Bryant is a plant molecular biologist at the University of
Exeter with a strong interest and expertise in Bioethics. As the new president
of the Society, with its international reputation for supporting plant science,
it is highly appropriate that John should be on our panel of speakers
presenting his views on genetic modification.

Having participated in a wide range of forums including public lectures on GM,
Bioethics training workshops and debates, John will be addressing the issues of
'How do we ethically evaluate GM crops'.

Dr Sue Mayer is the Director and a founder of GeneWatch UK, a not-for-profit
group that monitors developments in genetics and evaluates their social,
economic, safety, environmental and ethical implications. Sue is a qualified
veterinary surgeon with a doctorate in veterinary cell biology. She has been a
vet in practice, lectured at Bristol University and worked for the RSPCA and
Greenpeace.

Sue will be speaking on the subject of 'Should genes be patented?' A patent
gives the inventor the monopoly rights to commercial exploitation of their
invention. All the information in a patent application is published, allowing
society to learn, but only the inventor can use or licence the invention
allowing them to recoup their research and development costs. But genes occur
in nature so should they be claimed as 'inventions'? Many companies are
claiming patents on genes and so controlling how the knowledge is used. Will
this lead to more inventions and the use of genetics to benefit society or will
it prevent smaller companies and poorer countries from gaining access to
genetic technologies? As well as genes, plants and seeds have been patented.
What effect will this have on farmers? Royalties have to be paid if a farmer
keeps patented seed for re-sowing. Is this fair?

A recent report from the Nuffield Council on Bioethics argues that patents on
genes and basic genetic technologies may hinder, not help, innovation. The
Government's Commission on Intellectual Property Rights concluded that
developing countries should not be expected to allow patents on genes and seed
as trade rules currently expect. However, if we do not act soon to halt the
patenting of genes, both here and in other countries, we may find tight
monopoly control has drained away whatever promise genetics may once have held.

Dr Maggy Jennings is Head of the RSPCA Research Animals Department, which
advises on and implements the Society's policy and strategy on the use of
animals in scientific procedures.  The RSPCA aims to promote the development
and acceptance of humane alternatives to animals, to reduce animal use in
experiments, to reduce or avoid suffering and to improve research animal
welfare.

The Research Animals Department covers a very wide range of issues including
ethics and the ethical review process; the use of primates; genetic
engineering; cosmetics and other regulatory toxicity testing; laboratory animal
husbandry; assessment of pain, suffering and distress; animals in fundamental
research; and training of scientists and others involved with animal use.  The
implementation of the UK legislation regulating animal use, the Animals
(Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (ASPA), is integral to the Department's work.

Maggy specialises in bioethics with respect to animal experiments, especially
the development of ethics committees and ethical review processes for research
establishments, and the training of licensees under the ASPA in ethics and
laboratory animal welfare. The way the cost-benefit assessment is addressed in
the UK project licensing system, and how the concepts of benefit, necessity and
justification are applied in safety testing, medical and fundamental research
are other areas of particular interest.  Maggy is a member of a number of UK
government committees, including the Animal Procedures Committee, and EU
working parties concerned with the regulation of animal research including
specific issues such as xenotransplantation. She is also an advisor to
Eurogroup for animal welfare.  Maggy has a degree in zoology and a PhD in
virology and epidemiology.

Dr Gill Samuels CBE is Senior Director of Science Policy and Scientific Affairs
at Prizer's Global Research and Development Division at Sandwich in Kent.  She
is a physiologist and new pharmacologist by training, and before taking her
current position in 1995 was Director of Cardiovascular Biology for Pfizer,
contributing to the discovery of several new medicines, now marketed. She has
worked on national and international committes on issues ranging from science
training, issues of healthcare in LDC, the use of animals in medical research
and has served on two Government Commissions (Human Genetics and Intellectual
Property Rights).  She will be addressing the issues surrounding the use of
animals in medical research.


TEACHING BIOETHICS WORKSHOP
Wednesday 2 April, 4.00 - 5.30pm


Using Drama activities to site biomedical issues in ethical contexts
John Somers, Exeter

Events are enacted or unfold before our eyes.  So it is a powerful way of
bringing alive knowledge and experience which might otherwise be inert.
Drama from 5 to 16, HMI Curriculum Matters 17, HMSO London 1989 p1

So says the report of HMIs.  Since that time, drama and science have become
partners in an exciting series of initiatives that aim to set aspects of
bioethics in human contexts.  This short presentation will describe one of
these and then attempt to show how drama techniques can be used by science and
drama teachers to give focus to issues that mean little if considered through
generalities.

Advances in science are driven by the need to know and the possibility of
making the world a less constrained environment for those human and other
beings that inhabit it.  In spite of the 'detached stance' adopted in most
scientific research, few would argue that science is value free.  Modern
biomedical science is an area that raises clear ethical dilemmas.  In that it
impacts on humans in ways that challenge notions of mortality, imperfection and
the rights of the living, the unborn and, perhaps, the dead, biomedical science
raises crucial ethical issues that cannot be decided by scientists alone.

Please expect to 'get up and do' in a very rapid examination of possible drama
approaches.

Teaching of Social Impacts of Biology to Biologists at Newcastle
Roger S Pearce, Newcastle upon Tyne

The Social Impacts of Biology module comprises one-twelfth of the teaching and
learning in stage 3 of several pure and applied biology degrees at Newcastle. A
major teaching aim is to help students to organise and develop their own
thinking about the wider issues in science, including ethical issues. The
ethical and thinking core of the module is tackled by (a) disentangling ethical
and other issues, (b) outlining three mutually inconsistent ethical theories
that are reflected in attitudes to current issues, (c) getting experts involved
in the issues, to discuss legislation (if applicable), good practice, and
individual views. The module does not only deal with ethics; it also includes
consumer and public attitudes, intellectual property, and some purely
scientific elements (research into pain in animals and into the potential
spread of plant transgenes). The teaching is through sessions that vary from
traditional lectures to extensively interactive sessions. The examination
emphasises coherence of argument; the students are not required to approve or
adhere to any specific ethical theory or practice. An essay, for formative and
summative purposes, gives practice in presenting an argued case.

Teaching about bioethics through authoring of websites
Chris Willmott, Leicester

The ethical significance of recent developments in biomedicine are considered
as part of a Level 2 module entitled Targeting Biochemical Knowledge to Medical
Problems (n = 30 Medical Biochemists plus 10 Medics).  Students work in teams
of 4 or 5 to produce a set of web pages on their assigned topic.  They are
required to include a background briefing on the science underlying their topic
and to review other web-based resources.  Their review uses rating systems of
their own design and they are instructed to include sites that accurately
reflect the diversity of informed opinion on the issue.

At the close of the exercise the students give a brief presentation about the
topic to their peers.  The web pages are then available for use by the students
during the rest of the academic year prior to removal over the summer vacation.
This project therefore combines an increase in the students' knowledge of
current ethical issues with the development of important transferable skills,
notably web authoring, teamwork and the ability to distinguish the veracity of
different web-based resources.

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