Summer 2010        

Welcome to the Nuffield Council on Bioethics’ UPDATE newsletter – your quarterly news update on the Council’s activities. You can also sign up to receive alerts on specific areas of work.

Personalised healthcare?

Following a two-year inquiry, the Council will publish a report on Medical profiling and online medicine: the ethics of ‘personalised’ healthcare in a consumer age on 12 October 2010. The Working Party, chaired by Professor Christopher Hood, has considered ethical issues raised by new technologies and services that promise increasingly personalised healthcare, for example:

• commercial DNA testing for susceptibility to common diseases
• body imaging offered to healthy individuals as a ‘health MOT’
• online medicine, eg buying medicines on the internet and online personal health records
• telemedicine

These developments can give people increased choice and control over their health. However, they may also create needless confusion or anxiety, or lead to unnecessary invasive procedures. The report will make a number of recommendations for policy and practice.

Register to receive more information about the launch of this report.

Find out more about the Working Party

Human bodies in medicine and research

The Council and research consultancy Opinion Leader have been awarded a Public Engagement grant by the Wellcome Trust to hold a deliberative workshop on the provision of bodily material for medical treatment and research.

The workshop, held on 26 July at the At Bristol Science Centre, explored the views of 40 people drawn from a cross-section of the UK community on the ethical issues raised by the provision of bodily material, such as organs, blood, eggs and sperm, for medical treatment and research.

The Working Party is also advising Nef (the new economic foundation) on the development of a consultation stall to discuss people’s views on incentives for human body donation. The Nef will use the ‘Street Talk’ stall to engage 500 people on the street and in shopping centres over the summer.

The outcomes of all these activities will be considered by the Council’s Working Party on human bodies in medicine and research, along with other evidence it is currently gathering. Around 160 submissions were received in response to the Working Party’s call for views and evidence between April and July. The Working Party will publish a report in autumn 2011.

Find out more about the Working Party

New approaches to biofuels

The Council’s Working Party on new approaches to biofuels has held a series of fact finding meetings with specialists and stakeholders as part of its inquiry:

• Scientists from universities and research institutes
• Business representatives from Carbon Trust, BP and E.ON
• Representatives of NGOs, including ActionAid, Friends of the Earth, RSPB and WWF
• Policy makers, including representatives from the Renewable Fuels Agency, DEFRA, Department for Transport and National Non-Food Crops Centre.

Find out more about the Working Party

New Working Party on emerging biotechnologies

The Council has decided to set up a Working Party to examine social, ethical and legal issues raised by emerging biotechnologies in biology and medicine. The Working Party will consider implications for policy, governance and public engagement in light of the historical context in which biotechnologies have been developed, received and managed.

The group will be chaired by Professor Michael Moran, Professor of Government at the University of Manchester. Further members will be invited to join the group, which will meet for the first time in early 2011. A public consultation will be held in spring 2011, with a report expected to be published in autumn 2012.

Register your interest in this Working Party

Update on previous projects

• Scotland’s National Dementia Strategy, published in June, draws on the Council’s ethical framework for dementia in its recommendations on promoting the autonomy of people with dementia. Find out more
• Recommendations made by the Council in its 2007 report 'Public health: ethical issues' have been strengthened by a call from the National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence for the Government to address the problem of alcohol harm by introducing a minimum price per unit of alcohol. The Government has already outlined a number of proposals for changing legislation on alcohol, such as banning the sale of below cost price alcohol. Find out more
• In its Coalition document, the Government has stated that it will “adopt the protections of the Scottish model for the DNA database”, in line with recommendations made in the Council’s 2007 report 'The Forensic use of bioinformation: ethical issues’. Find out more