Introduction by Linda Clark, followed by Mihi by Waiora Port

Linda Clark: Good evening ladies and gentlemen, and thank you very much for your patience. I am Linda Clark. I am going to be facilitating this evening’s event. The reason that we are running a little behind schedule at the very outset, which is never a good sign I know - but the food and wine were fabulous, thank you very much for that – is that, as you will see on the podium, there are a couple of empty chairs for which we can thank good old Wellington’s weather – the fog this morning. Two of our guests for this evening’s event were flying in, and they are still flying in, but, because of this morning’s fog, every other flight is delayed. So when you hear the rush at the back of the hall, and the scampering of heavy feet, that will be our late arrivals. We will start without them. Hopefully they will be here in order to participate. Once they come in, if we can just pretend that they were never late and welcome them just the same that would be terrific.

I am sure that, since you are here, many of you know that the New Zealand Bioethics Council is hosting this event because, very shortly, the Advisory Council on Assisted Reproductive Technology will be making some recommendations about the use of embryos and it is important that, before then, all of those involved in the field hear what the public thinks about these complicated issues. And they are complicated, because for some people this isn’t just about science; it is about life itself, and on both sides of the debate you will find very good people with very strong feelings and determination.

The format this evening is a lot less complicated. It is about information. We hope you will get a great deal of information from this evening. There will be plenty of opportunity later for you to ask the questions that you are dying to ask, and certainly I am very keen for you to have as much involvement as possible, so we have structured the evening to give plenty of time for that. But we would ask that you do not interrupt the speakers as they progress in the early part of the evening.

I will introduce the speakers in a moment, but first Martin Wilkinson, who is the Acting Chair of the Bioethics Council, was going to be here to say a few words of welcome. He is one of the guests, apart from the two on stage, who is also in the air, so we will accept his welcome in absentia, and Waiora, if I can invite you to give the mihi for the evening.

Wairoa Port:

Hutia te rito o te harakeke
Kei hea te komako e koe
Ki mai ki ahau
He aha te mea nui o te Ao
He tangata, he tangata, he tangata.

If you take the little shoot from the flax bush
Where will the bellbird sing?
Ask me, what is the most important thing in the world
And I shall tell you
‘Tis people, ‘tis people, ‘tis people

Tenei te mihi nui ki a koutou
katoa kua tae mai nei I tenei po
ki te whakawhiti korero e
pa ana ki tenei take tino hohonu
Ki a koutou nga kaikorero tenā ra koutou.
Tena koe e Linda, tena koe I haere mai nei ki  te whakahaere tenei huihuinga i tenei po.
No reira, hurinoa, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena ra koutou katoa

Linda Clark: Let me introduce the speakers this evening in the order you are going to be hearing from them.

First up this evening you are going to be hearing from Professor Sylvia Rumball, who really needs no introduction. She is Chair of the Advisory Council on Assisted Reproductive Technology (ACART) – I love acronyms; there is going to be a lot more of them!

Then Dr Ruth Fitzgerald. Ruth is a senior lecturer in anthropology at the University of Otago. Her academic interests include the subject of innovative medical technologies, and her current research involves the study of the ethical decision-making of embryologists working in New Zealand.

Professor Richard Faull will be our third speaker this evening. Richard is Professor of Anatomy at Auckland University. He has established an international reputation for his study into such conditions as Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s Disease, and at Auckland University he has established the internationally recognised brain bank to support worldwide research on human neuro degenerative diseases.

After that, fingers crossed and fog lifting, Dr Marewa Glover will speak to us, and so will Professor Mark Henaghan. Marewa has spent 13 years working in tobacco control and Maori health research. Her latest research project is looking at Maori attitudes to assisted human reproduction. Professor Henaghan is Dean of Law at Otago. He is the principal investigator of the human genome research project Law Ethics and Policy for the Future, funded by the New Zealand Law Foundation, and he has just been appointed to the Advisory Committee on Assisted Reproductive Technology.

As you can see, a highly knowledgeable panel for you this evening, so lots of information in store.

I ask Professor Sylvia Rumball to speak first this evening.

Back to seminar transcripts index