UNESCO

Hey everyone,

Well, I promised a curve for the research papers that were eligible for research awards by tonight, and, go figure, I haven’t been able to have that for you guys. I will definitely have a curve for all the papers by tomorrow night, when we pass out the papers to you guys. I will also have a bit of something to say to you guys to help you move forward from your initial deliberations, and into what I hope will be the most productive MUN session of the conference.

Which leads me to… the first day of the conference!

If you guys have access to a University of California (at Berkeley) campus map, our room will be at LeConte Hall, which is far from most hotels. So there are two things to remember…

1) Bring shoes that aren’t too uncomfortable. For guys, I don’t think this is too much of a problem. For girls, feel free to bring flip-flops or comfortable sandals for the walk up or down. Just make sure to be professional in terms of foot attire during committee session.

2) Bring an umbrella.

Berkeley weather is notoriously unpredictable. It was supposed to rain today, so I brought my umbrella out with me, only to be hit with blinding sunlight. So my advice to all of you is this: Don’t trust the weather reports. Bring a warm jacket or sweater, and be prepared to take it off in case of sun. Bring an umbrella, and be ready to stash it in your bag.

Also another public service reminder: Berkeley is protest central. We have three major protests going on right now, and it won’t be hard for you to notice them when you walk past them. All I have to say about that is this: just ignore them. All Berkeley protestors are begging for attention. Their causes are nonsensical, their viewpoints are too radical for logical human beings, and anyone dragged into their antics are simply wasting their time.

So when a bad-smelling, creaky-sounding, raisin-looking crazy approaches you to join them in a spiritual communion in the trees, just look the other way and walk past them. Its really the only way to be able to go home and avoid telling your parents that you’ve decided to eschew college for the school of hard knocks.

Alright, see all of you tomorrow!

- Bryan

Article link.By MALCOLM RITTER
AP Science Writer
 
NEW YORK (AP) — Nearly all of today’s Native Americans in North, Central and South America can trace part of their ancestry to six women whose descendants immigrated around 20,000 years ago, a DNA study suggests.

Those women left a particular DNA legacy that persists to today in about about 95 percent of Native Americans, researchers said…

Just one more day guys! Stay tuned for blog updates tonight.

- Bryan

Article link.

By David Willey
BBC News, Rome

The Vatican has brought up to date the traditional seven deadly sins by adding seven modern mortal sins it claims are becoming prevalent in what it calls an era of “unstoppable globalisation”.

Those newly risking eternal punishment include drug pushers, the obscenely wealthy, and scientists who manipulate human genes. So “thou shalt not carry out morally dubious scientific experiments” or “thou shalt not pollute the earth” might one day be added to the Ten Commandments…

Even though our topics don’t directly involve genetic manipulation, this should serve to remind those representing nations closely aligned with the Catholic Church (or similarly orthodox religious organizations) the position some (but not all) religious groups have towards anything involved with genetics.

More posts to come today, so keep updated!

- Bryan

Hey everyone, I’m starting to feel well enough to resume posting, so here goes.

 OFFICE HOURS

I will be having one LAST session (I know, three isn’t hardly enough) on AIM tomorrow evening from 8 to 9 pm. My sn will be BMUNunesco56, once again. Apologies to all those who were looking for me since the last session, but I can only log into a MUN-related sn so many times.

BIOETHICS CASE STUDIES

This will be the first of two posts regarding case studies to get your brains frying in terms of the issues we will be facing. These are case studies and are by NO means unique to the country talked about in the study. For example, the Chinese case study features laws that are also present in the United States, Canada, Japan, and in most of Europe.

Chinese Screening for Disease in Couples

The Maternal and Infant Health Care Law in China is a major legislative action that ”provides services” for all couples seeking marriage and children regarding screening for potential inheritable diseases and genetic and mental conditions. The law isn’t clear in terms of how mandatory these “services” are, but if a physician determines that a couple has unacceptable risk of passing on disease, he can issue a report banning the couple from marrying until that couple undergoes necessary contraception.

This law is a recurrence of negative eugenics, where a government prevents couples with health risks (mental state, genetic conditions, etc.) from having children. It occured to a great extent in America and Western Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and many of the laws of that period are still in place today.

Naturally, Americans are repulsed by such practices that are now legal in China (note the diction of my language, even. I tried to make it neutral, but its not). But how do the Chinese think? For the most part, they are in support of this law. Their culture is simply more accepting of practices that conform the individual to the group. Keep this in mind when you try to create some sort of universal and international standard.

Icelandic Genomic Testing

Iceland was the first nation to fully map the genomes and the genetic data of every single one of its citizens. The project began as a database covering just personal and other non-scientific data, but impetus from several communities convinced lawmakers to include genetic data as well.

The ease of doing so helped. Iceland has a small population, most of which has interbred for the majority of its history, resulting in very little genetic diversity.  Detailed health records have also been taken, so the value of a genetic database seemed very helpful in improving health care in Iceland.

However, there was much protest from groups all around Iceland. This protest centered around issues of abuse of that genetic data, such as genetic discrimination in health care, insurance, and job interviews, violation of privacy, and many others. As of now, the genetic database is complete, and the issue has subsided, for now…

This case is wildly different than what we will be facing, since Iceland is much less diverse than, well, the entire world put together. So if there is protest among people’s that are nearly genetically alike, just imagine the turmoil this testing will have among people who are much more genetically diverse.

Alright, more to come tomorrow!

- Bryan

Just a quick reminder: BMUN does not accept pre-written resolutions. If a resolution that is turned looks like its been prewritten, or if during committee a delegate reports a pre-written resolution, we will not accept it. That however does not mean you cannot come to committee with ideas for solutions; in fact, we encourage that.

Alright, I hope to see many of you tonight online!

- Bryan

Hey everyone,

I will be holding online office hours tomorrow from 6-7 pm and 8-9 pm tomorrow (Tuesday) on AIM. My screenname will be BMUNunesco56.

I will post the chat room I will be using tomorrow before office hours on this blog. In addition, if the activity is strong enough, I will consider holding the office hours the following week as well.

Don’t let the suddent influx of posts following an extended hiatus confuse you. There are THREE new posts today, so be sure to read up on those.

 - Bryan

Article link.By AMY HARMON

Published: February 24, 2008

 

Victoria Grove wanted to find out if she was destined to develop the form of emphysema that ran in her family, but she did not want to ask her doctor for the DNA test that would tell her.

She worried that she might not be able to get health insurance, or even a job, if a genetic predisposition showed up in her medical records, especially since treatment for the condition, alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, could cost over $100,000 a year. Instead, Ms. Grove sought out a service that sent a test kit to her home and returned the results directly to her…

Again, if you cannot access the article, let me know and I will email the full text to you.

Also, a great archive of articles on the same topic. Granted, these are all issues that exist in the US. Still, its a great resource, especially when you extend those same issues to the international arena and apply cultural relativism to the debate.

- Bryan

Hey everyone,

Again, I have to apologize for my haphazard breaks from blogging. Life for a college student is very busy, and I hope you understand.

That being said, its less than three weeks until the conference, and I hope you guys are getting as excited as I am, especially seeing some of the submissions of articles that I’ve been getting.

First of all, I promised you guys an overview of international law, both in principle and in practice. Convienently, I was the head chair of the 6th Legal committee of the General Assembly for last year’s session, and I provided a succinct overview of international law in that committee’s topic synopsis. It was brief considering that international law is a very nebulous and arbitrary process, and hard to understand, even for people like me. Last year’s delegates only needed a minimal level of understanding, and I cannot see you guys needing to know more than they did…

6th Legal topic synopsis from the 55th Annual Session

Finally, two delegates have submitted very interesting articles…

Article link

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - People indigenous to Siberia have strong genetic links to native peoples in the Americas, according to a study further supporting the theory that humans first entered the Americas over a land bridge across the Bering Strait.

Scientists at Stanford University in California combed through the genes of 938 people from 51 places, looking at 650,000 DNA locations in each person…

This article is quite revealing in the fact that we can discover people’s common ancestry in a peaceful way and let science be a main priority. With this way of discovering the past and DNA of indigenous people, we can ensure the safety of indigenous people and also let science discover the links between various ethnic groups. Also, by discovering the differences between people’s places of origins, we can stop the flow of prejudice by disproving that a certain ethnic groups committed crimes against another group. This would be one of the more positive side effects of genetic tracking. Hopefully, countries will see the positive effects of genetic tracking and will be more inclined to support scientists, but will also hopefully join together to combat any negative side effects that may arise.

Article link

The normal “standard of care” against which new interventions are tested in medical research has not been formally defined. It is usually taken to mean the “best proved treatment” for any condition under investigation in a trial. We reject the arbitrariness of this notion of the standard of care and offer a more comprehensive alternative. Use of this new standard invokes a new approach to international research ethics that focuses on reducing inequalities in global health…

If you guys cannot access the second article, let me know, and I will email the full text to you. I have access through the University of California proxy server, so I’m not sure how the restrict access to the general public.

Later this week I will start posting some intriguing case studies for you all to look over. So, until then, good luck with continuing your awesome researching!

- Bryan

Q: The position paper guidelines you link to here are different than the guidelines in the Delegate Guide. Which do I follow?

A: Follow the guidelines in this blog, as they are more comprehensive than the guidelines in the Delegate Guide.

- Bryan

A delegate emailed this article to the chairs about a very interesting and pertinent article concerning the first topic. I’m getting very encouraged by some of the more exemplary examples of researching shown by some of you. Keep up the great work!

Article link.

ScienceDaily (Jan. 23, 2008 ) — The origins and current genetic relationships of Pacific Islanders have generated interest and controversy for many decades. Now, a new comprehensive genetic study of almost 1,000 individuals has revealed that Polynesians and Micronesians have almost no genetic relation to Melanesians, and that groups that live in the islands of Melanesia are remarkably diverse…

This article is a prime example of how genome identification on indigenous people can be used. While the discovery stated in this article may not lead to any harmful effects later on, the problem still arises of what may happen when two races are found to be identical. A hate relationship may develop as one side refuses to acknowledge the other. Bitterness may brew between two different groups and prejudice could spread. Genetic identification is an issue of varying opinions that need to see the problems from all sides of the spectrum and determine the route that will allow science to prevail but danger to dissipate.

- Bryan