World Congress for Freedom of Scientific Research newsletter -15
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World Congress for Freedom of Scientific Research
the bulletin
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Number 15, August 2010
- Narcotic drugs: the Radicals participate in the Vienna declaration, requesting that Ban Ki Moon supports the decriminalization. “When political powers decide to trample on every bit of evidence, the road to new forms of totalitarianism is opened: it is because of this that we decided to back the mobilization of scientists and doctors through the Vienna Declaration”. Read the joint declaration by the Nonviolent Radical Party transnational and transparty, Luca Coscioni Association and the International Anti-prohibitionist League.
- UK embryo agency faces the axe. In the ethically fraught field of human-embryo research, Britain´s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has long been regarded as a world leader in regulating and advising scientists. But now the HFEA faces the axe, and researchers and politicians are chorusing their discontent, Nature reports. The move is part of a bigger push to make public spending cuts by closing ´quangos´ — quasi-autonomous non-governmental organizations — many of which perform regulatory functions on behalf of the government. HFEA´s regulation of fertility treatments will move to the Care Quality Commission. But its research licensing work will probably move to a new super-regulator. Read more.
- Country report on freedom of research: United Kingdom. The country of the month is United Kingdom, surveyed by Library of the European Parliament - DG Presidency. Last update: December 2008. Assisted reproduction and research with human embryonic stem cells (hESC) are both regulated by Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008. According to the report, the HFEA Act does not prohibit access to assisted reproductive treatment for people who have genetic or viral diseases, or for people who are single or in same sex relationships. A clinic would be permitted to create embryos for the purpose of generating stem cells under a research license granted by the HFEA. A cybrid embryo, referred to as an admixed embryo within the Act, can be created, stored and used providing the centre holds an HFEA research license specific for this purpose. Euthanasia is illegal. Abortion is legally available to women in Great Britain, and medical abortion is also used. If you are 16 or over, you can buy the emergency pill from most pharmacies. Use of cannabis for medicinal purposes is illegal. The reports is still incomplete in some fields. You can help monitoring freedom of research and cure in your country and in the world. Any contribution will be fully acknowledged. Read more.
- Charles Sabine: “A layman’s perspective”. “I have spent more than half my life working for NBC news, mostly in places... where the dangers of religious dogma are written in blood. Where the excuse for war may usually be religion, but is, in fact, all about power... When my mother gave us news of my father John, from that moment, every single action, performed by every one of us, every single day, would be coloured by that news: he was suffering from Huntington’s disease – a condition I, like most people, had never heard of. It was, I was told, incurable – untreatable. And more than that, genetic. I had a 50/50 chance of having the faulty gene that caused the disease, and if so, the disease would most likely develop in me in the next ten to fifteen years. My first reaction was incredulity. I had spent my working life immersed in the misery that nature, as well as men, can inflict on the human race. But it had never occurred to me my family could be a victim”. Read on line the full text by Charles Sabine, NBC News Correspondent (from the proceedings of the Second Meeting of the World Congress for Freedom of Scientific Research).
News in brief:
- Barcelona from 3rd to 5th of September 2010: General Council of the Nonviolent Radical Party Transnational and Transparty. Read more.
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