TOI TE TAIAO: THE BIOETHICS COUNCIL

Minutes of Meeting held on 3 September 2007 at

Wellington Airport Conference Centre, Wellington

The meeting commenced at 9.30 a.m.

Present:        Associate Professor Martin Wilkinson (Chair), Helen Bichan, Waiora Port, Rosemary Du Plessis, Eamon Daly, Marie Bismark, Mark Fisher, Tahu Potiki, Brett Stephenson, John Pennington, Dr. Cordelia Thomas, and Simon Wright.

1          Karakia and Welcome

Martin welcomed everyone to the meeting, and Waiora gave a karakia. Martin especially welcomed two of the three new members of Council to their first meeting. He invited Council Members to introduce themselves and give a brief background. He offered congratulations to Cordelia on the granting of her Doctorate.

2          Apologies

            Apologies were received from Huia Tomlins -Jahnke and Peggy Fairbairn-Dunlop.

3          Minutes of Last Council Meeting

            That the minutes of the meeting held on 2 July 2007 be accepted as a true and correct record and be placed on the website, subject to the following amendments:

• Deleting the first point under Chair’s Report relating to air flights.
• Renumbering current agenda item 8.6 to fit more logically within the overall record.
• In item 11 removing the name of the person making the OIA request.

Chair / Helen Bichan - CARRIED

4          Matters Arising from Previous Minutes

            Action List

Work programme – There was interest in the Ministry for the Environment on looking jointly at environment issues – perhaps the use of pesticides in agriculture or nanotechnology.
Development of Budget – the Budget Working Group would meet by teleconference, chaired by Marie.
Action: Marie

            BEC Overheads – query resolved to Secretariat’s satisfaction.

            Domestic Travel – variance – issue resolved.

            Liability Insurance -  to be discussed later in the meeting.

            Sponsorship Policy – in meeting papers.

            Sponsorship Applications – applications responded to.

            Council considered Grant Gillett’s proposal for funding the production of a booklet on spirituality and bioethics.
It was suggested that, for a lot of people, spirituality can be separate from religion.
The Chair said that, if Council were to participate in a panel discussion at the Bioethics Conference next February, it would be good to be prepared. He suggested a “blue skies” discussion be held at the November meeting on spirituality, and, in preparation for that, asked the Secretariat to circulate any applicable written material.
Action: Secretariat

            Council Members who were planning to attend the New Zealand Bioethics Conference were asked to register an interest in attending with the secretariat and if they wished to present, send a copy of the abstract to the Secretariat.

The Secretariat would circulate details about the New Zealand Bioethics Conference 1-3 February 2008.
Action: Secretariat

5          Chair’s Report

            The Chair said that he had had several meetings, the most significant of which had been the second meeting of the Ad Hoc Ministers’ Coordination Group. At the meeting the need to ensure that Ministers make a formal response to BEC’s reports was raised. The other major topic for discussion had been the BEC’s relationship with ACART, which was working well.

            He and John had been meeting with MPs from outside the Government parties. They had all been enthusiastic, and had suggested the following:

• GM remains an issue of concern
• The BEC should think about work regarding the use of enhancing drugs like Ritalin
• BEC should think about increasing its profile in Parliament
• BEC should look at linking with the Royal Society’s forum to politicians.

Action: Secretariat to contact Brian Donnelly regarding speaking opportunities

            Martin had met John Martin, Chair of the National Animal Ethics Committee, to continue dialogue on the relationship between the two bodies.

6          Report of ACART Submission Working Group (Marie)

            The working group had had a successful meeting to formulate its submission to ACART on clinic-assisted surrogacy, embryo donation for reproductive purposes, donation of gametes between certain family members, and certain uses of PGD, and an oral submission would be made on 5 September. A report back would be provided

            The Chair thanked Marie for chairing the working group and Cordelia for preparing the submission.

7          Report of Pre-Birth Testing Working Group (Rosemary)

            The project has moved from conception to a project plan and a set of interviews with key thinkers had been undertaken and transcribed. A thematic analysis had been prepared.

The second stage had been the six framing exercises, with the last one being completed in mid August in Christchurch. The framing exercises would identify the broad areas of thinking so that a large range of the public might come to the deliberative events, find approaches that reflected their values and opinions and deliberate with.

Analysis of the framing exercises has begun. The next stage is to prepare a choice book for use at the deliberative events containing information about some of the testing available, some of the issues, and legislative and guideline frameworks, and also the approaches that have come out of the six framing exercises. It would be available as a printed document and on the website.

Then the next stage would be to hold deliberative meetings. There would be at least 16 group meetings from Invercargill to Whangarei, and at the same time the on-line dialogue would be conducted.
The plan was to produce a report by April 2008.

Rosemary said that Council Members would have received an outline of the deliberative events planned, and she asked that they attend those close to where they are physically located.
The need for more Maori groups was expressed such as at the Kohanga reo in Auckland. Tahu said that the Maori Women’s Welfare League was very strong in Christchurch (Aroha Crofts, Liz Cunningham) – a Maori Christchurch group could be organised around the week commencing the 5th.

Cordelia to send out a list of dates, venues, and Council Members who can attend these meetings.
Action: Cordelia

Within the next week the Secretariat would do a draft of the choice book outlining the potential approaches, and send it to all Council Members electronically.
Action: Secretariat

It was agreed that the title of the project would be “Who gets born? Pre birth testing”.

The Secretariat would circulate CRESA’s draft evaluation report on the project to date.
Action: John

8          Secretariat issues

The Secretariat mentioned that they are about to move their location within Environment House. John said he would be having discussions to ensure that the new arrangements would be satisfactory.

John also said that, although there was a significant current workload on the Secretariat, projects were on track. The Chair said that Council was grateful for their ongoing hard work, but noted that it was within Council’s scope to ensure the workload met resources.

Moana Durie Sinclair had been appointed as Senior Analyst, and would be starting on 24 September.

           
9          Pre-Birth Testing On-line Engagement (Simon)

            Simon briefed the Council on the on-line form of engagement that it was proposed to use in the “Who Gets Born? Prebirth testing” project.

            John said he would check whether the survey model had inbuilt into it the ability to save information to be returned to later.
Action: Secretariat

Advertising of the on-line form of engagement to secondary school science teachers was suggested. John said that would be included in the Secretariat’s future work programme.

10        Report/discussion on UK Visit (Martin)

Martin reported back on the meetings he had with people involved in research, think tanks, policy, the law of transplantation, and public engagement. He reported on the conference on organ transplantation in Rotterdam that he attended.

11        Decision List

1.         Annual Plan June 2007 – June 2008

Duplication in appendix 2 to be deleted.

Moved: Helen Bichan / Mark Fisher:  That the BEC approve the Annual Plan June 2007 – June 2008, as revised.

            2.         Sponsorship and Funding Policy
Amend the fourth bullet point, final sentence, to read: The Chair shall decide . . .”.

                        Moved: Helen Bichan / Martin Wilkinson: That the BEC approve the Sponsorship and Funding Policy as amended.

            3.         Sponsorship of an Arts Project
Council agreed in principle on further work regarding a potential arts project, but noted it would add to the Secretariat’s work programme.
Action: Secretariat

(Marie Bismark left the meeting for the duration of discussion of agenda item 11.4)          

4.         Rotary Club of Rotorua Speech Competition: Proposal to expand competition to 10 regional Rotary Clubs

Secretariat stated that Council would not want to be involved in organising a national final competition.

Decision:  To proceed to further negotiations, up to a maximum amount, whilst making it clear that the Secretariat would not want to be involved in organisation of the national final.                                                                                                    Action: Secretariat

12        Possible Topics for Future Work

            Discussion deferred.

13        Video Clip

Council viewed a video clip from Maori TV about the consultation with Maori by ACART on the use of embryos for research.

14        Liability Insurance for Council Members (Marie)

            Marie said that her research led her to think that the potential risks to Council of payment for a liability issue were low, although defending a vexatious complaint could be costly. Two possible approaches were: the Secretariat obtaining a legal opinion from the SSC and a quote from an insurance company, and the Chair asking the Chief Executive of the Ministry for the Environment for his advice.
Action: John/Martin

15        Variance Report (John)

No report.

16        Secretariat Report

            Report noted.

17        Other Business

            Agenda
The Secretariat was requested to list current and proposed projects on each meeting agenda, with a brief status report.

            A request was made that the Council meeting papers be bound, and also, if possible, that they come as one document.

            Media Strategy
John outlined reasons for considering a lower level media/communications strategy, which included the peaks and troughs of Council’s work, and the very real success that had been gained from expenditure on smaller projects such as speech competitions. In the “Who Gets Born?” project, avenues for consideration for advertising included Maori TV and radio, women’s magazines, and websites for new parents. Alongside that, the Secretariat would continue its strategy to get “free” media interest in the Council’s work. In summary, the Secretariat would be doing all of the same things to cultivate an interest in the Council and its work; it was just looking carefully at where it should spend large amounts of money on national advertising.

The meeting concluded at 4 p.m.

Tahu closed the meeting with karakia

Action List

• Budget Working Group to meet by teleconference to discuss budget.

Action: Marie

• Schedule “blue skies” discussion on spirituality for 5 November Council meeting.

Action: Secretariat

• Circulate details about 2008 Bioethics Conference                     Action: Secretariat

• Contact Brian Donnelly about a link-up with the Royal Society’s forum

Action: Secretariat

• Send out a list of dates, venues, and Council Members who can attend deliberative events on Pre-Birth Testing project.                                               Action: Cordelia
• Draft choice book and send to all Council Members                                                                                                                                                                Action: Secretariat

• Circulate evaluation report.

Action: John

• Check whether online dialogue can have the ability to save information so it could be returned to later.

Action: Secretariat

• Put on work programme the idea of advertising the survey’s availability to secondary schools science teachers.

Action: Secretariat

• Follow up on arts project.

Action: Secretariat

• Obtain legal opinion from the SSC and quote from an insurance company on liability insurance.

Action: Secretariat