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BLAST
Editor-in-Chief Associate Print Editor Associate Online Editor Contact Section
Section of Science and Technology Law Officers Chair Chair-Elect Vice Chair Secretary Budget Officer Section Delegates
Immediate Past Section Chair Section Past Chair Liaison |
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IN THIS ISSUE NOVEMBER 2000
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Information Security Committee Meeting Was No Secret The Information Security Committee (ISC) last met in San Francisco in early August, with over 30 attendees from law firms, the information security industry, and government. Many government personnel were in attendance because the ISC co-sponsored a Multi-State Digital Signature Summit Committee immediately following the ISC meeting. Most of the states and many representatives from all over the country attended the Summit. At the meeting it was agreed that the PKI Assessment Guidelines, ("PAG") the work product the ISC has been laboring on for over 4 years now, will be edited and released for public comment on the Internet in December of this year. The PAG is now being edited by an executive editor. The ISC will meet on 9-10 November
in Washington, D.C., at the International Law Institute, where the
PAG will be reviewed in committee one more time before it is released
for public comment. Other Working Groups will be meeting at that
time to discuss their work products.For
more information please visit the ISC homepage, http://www.abanet.org/scitech/ec/isc.
London Session on Biotechnology
Now Available on Internet If you were unable to attend the London meeting, you can still view the Section's program on "Biotechnology and the Law in the New Millennium" over the Internet. The session was one of only five selected by the ABA for videotaping and later "webcasting." The three hour program is available at http://www.abanet.oprg/cle/ecle at a special rate of $49.00. The session began with a summary of the current state of the Human Genome Project by Dr. Richard Durbin (Deputy Director of The Sanger Centre, Cambridge, England). The Sanger Centre is the largest single contributor to the Human Genome Project, and Dr. Durbin's talk provided a participant's view of the project to date. Next, Professor Everett Mendelsohn (Department of the History of Science, Harvard University) reviewed the political and social history of human genetics. Understanding past controversies and misuses of genetics is essential to appreciating the roots of current debates. With this background, the next step was to analyze current debates in terms of the science as now understood, coupled with a sophisticated appreciation of ethical issues. Dr. Tom Wilkie (Head of the Programme in Biomedical Ethics, The Wellcome Trust, London) presented an example of this analysis, using as his case study the links between the gene ApoE and Alzheimer's. His talk represented a valuable lesson on how complicated the "big questions" become when coupled with an understanding of the limits of our current knowledge. We may think of genetics as relating primarily to physical characteristics of humans, but it also has implications for understanding how our minds function. This may have major consequences both for the treatment of mental disorders and for attitudes towards mentally ill persons. These issues were raised by Dame Fiona Caldicott (Principal, Somerville College, Oxford, England). Dame Fiona is a past president of the royal College of Psychiatrists and chaired the Nuffield Council Committee which recently issued a report on "Mental Disorders and Genetics: The Ethical Context." The best known application of genetics, of course, is the cloning of the sheep "Dolly." Dr. Keith Campbell (a member of the research team which cloned Dolly) presented a summary for non-scientists of the techniques used to clone Dolly, advances since Dolly, and some of the potential uses and limitations of animal cloning. Professor Alexander Capron (a member of the U.S. National Bioethics Advisory Commission) compared how the American and British political systems have responded to the debates now arising over genetic research. Scott Partridge, past chair of the Section, concluded the session by moderating a discussion among the speakers and the audience. As Scott noted in his concluding remarks, there will be a great deal of hard work to be done by lawyers as genetic science and technology develop. NCLS Update The National Conference of Lawyers and Scientists (NCLS) is a joint standing committee of the ABA and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). NCLS oversees projects in the Scientific Freedom, Responsibility, and Law program at AAAS. At the July 9, 2000 NCLS meeting, held in New York City in conjunction with the ABA Annual Meeting, members provided background information and status updates on various projects. These projects included: Intellectual Property and Electronic Publishing in Science (IP/EP), forensic sciences, Human Inheritable Genetic Modifications, and a meeting on Scientific Societies and Research Integrity. The IP/EP project is examining how electronic publishing in science fits in with the intellectual property regime. The project will create a set of recommendations that aim to balance the protection of researchers' intellectual property with the open dissemination and exchange of scientific information. Three working groups have been assigned to various tasks. The first working group already has identified stakeholders and categorized their interests. The second working group, charged with identifying the current status of the U.S. legal framework and how it will affect stakeholders, has completed an initial draft report. The third working group is responsible for developing a draft set of recommendations. All three working groups will meet in the fall to further develop the recommendations. The project on forensic evidence is beginning to plan a conference entitled "Future Directions for Scientific Evidence in Criminal Law." The conference will develop a research agenda for the forensic sciences and initiate work on guidelines and educational materials for both forensic scientists and courts. The conference will focus national attention on both the problems associated with forensic sciences and possible solutions. Speakers will include those within and outside the traditional forensic science community. Participants will include scientists, research policy specialists, jurists, journalists, forensic scientists, and critics of the forensic sciences. The project is still in the process of securing funding. The Human Inheritable Genetic Modifications project looked at the scientific, ethical, religious, and policy issues surrounding genetic manipulation of humans that can affect future generations. The U.S. is not entertaining proposals for funding human germ line interventions at this time, but research currently is being conducted on animals. The report and recommenda-tions on human inheritable genetic modifications has just been released, and next year a volume of essays written by working group members will be published. Several chapters of the volume are currently under review. The report and recommendations can be found at http://www.aaas.org/spp/dspp/sfrl/germline/main.htm. A meeting on Scientific Societies and Research Integrity, held in April, was co-hosted by AAAS and the U.S. Office of Research Integrity. The meeting focused on the roles and activities of scientific societies in promoting research integrity. Sessions were held on publishing, educational activities, and ethics codes. The results of an AAAS survey of scientific societies to identify provisions in their ethics codes and activities they offer to promote research integrity were presented. A report of the April meeting is available online and in hard copy. A summary of the report also serves as the cover story in the September issue of Professional Ethics Report. Additionally, an agreement has been reached with Science and Engineering Ethics to publish some of the presenters' papers in a special issue on research integrity next year. The next NCLS meeting will take place November 3-4, 2000. For a complete listing of NCLS members and objectives, see http://www.aaas.org/spp/dspp/sfrl/committ/ncls.htm. SAN DIEGO 2001 ABA MIDYEAR
MEETING HYATT REGENCY SAN DIEGO
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