UNESCO

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

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…

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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.

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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

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

Article link.By Will Dunham Tue Feb 12, 4:47 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Only about a third of U.S. medical schools have policies aimed at curbing conflicts of interest arising from their financial ties with companies like drug and medical device makers, researchers said on Tuesday.

Such businesses cultivate deep financial relationships with medical schools. Among other things, industry often relies on academic researchers to conduct studies that may help win government approval for drugs that could generate billions of dollars in sales.

The researchers asked 125 U.S. medical schools about their policies governing financial ties with industry. Eighty-six schools responded to the 2006 survey.

Only 38 percent had adopted a policy covering financial interests held by the institution. Thirty-seven percent were working on adopting such a policy, and the final 25 percent were doing nothing…

This article touches on two issues that are important for us. One, this should remind you about the ethical issue of conflicts of interest I talked about in my last post. Businesses want profits, and that could and often does interfere with proper health care. Two, the coordination of business and medical research is the main impetus for spreading research past national borders, which leads to the very problem of a lack of an international standard for research ethics that will dominate our second topic.

- Bryan

Article link.

The CEO of Geron is planning embryonic stem cell tests in humans this spring if the biotech meets the FDA’s “high bar.” 

By Aaron Smith, CNNMoney.com staff writer

February 11 2008: 3:16 PM EST 

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The first experiments using human embryonic stem cells in human subjects could begin within a few months, the chief executive of biotech Geron said Monday.

At the annual BIO CEO conference in New York, Dr. Thomas Okarma said Geron plans to start embryonic stem-cell studies in humans with spinal cord injuries toward the end of the second quarter. Okarma said the tests would involve up to 40 human patients, while all prior tests involved rats…

Keep in mind while reading this article to try to stray from focusing on the typical stem cell debate in the United States (sanctity of life, need for medical cures, embryonic vs. adult stem cell lines) and focus more on how the research itself is regulated and approved, as the third-party management of research is to be the focus of our second topic.

Article link.

By LINDA A. JOHNSON

 

TRENTON, N.J.

Two former sales representatives for Amgen Inc. are suing the biotech company, alleging it pushed its sales force to search doctor’s confidential medical records for potential patients to boost sales of a drug used to treat psoriasis.

The two former representatives, who are seeking lost pay, punitive damages and other compensation totaling more than $15 million apiece, allege they objected to superiors and refused to go along with the scheme, which legal experts say violates federal patient privacy law…

Amgen is a large biotechnology firm based in Thousand Oaks, CA, and is the largest independent firm in the world. According to Business week, Amgen is one of the most “future-oriented” corporations in the S&P 500. This impetus for scientific progress is clearly seen in this article, where it comes into conflict with patient’s rights. This conflict is central to your second topic, where the problem takes on a new level of international research. Its easy to see where to go to resolve the Amgen controversy (American legal system, NIH, etc…). What if this was an international controversy? Who would you go to?

-Bryan

Article link.

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN and ALAN SCHER ZAGIER – 2 days ago

BEIJING (AP) — They’re paralyzed from diving accidents and car crashes, disabled by Parkinson’s, or blind. With few options available at home in America, they search the Internet for experimental treatments — and often land on Web sites promoting stem cell treatments in China.

They mortgage their houses and their hometowns hold fundraisers as they scrape together the tens of thousands of dollars needed for travel and the hope for a miracle cure.

A number of these medical tourists claim some success when they return home:

Jim Savage, a Houston man with paralysis from a spinal cord injury, says he can move his right arm. Penny Thomas of Hawaii says her Parkinson’s tremors are mostly gone. The parents of 6-year-old Rylea Barlett of Missouri, born with an optical defect, say she can see.

But documentation is mostly lacking, and Western doctors warn that patients are serving as guinea pigs in a country that isn’t doing the rigorous lab and human tests that are needed to prove a treatment is safe and effective…

This article points to various differing schools of thought concerning China’s stem-cell policy. These viewpoints have nothing to do with the sanctity of life or other issues that dominate American discourse; rather, the debate is centered on the need for scientific research to progress and the need for regulation of said research. These two concepts need not be mutually exclusive, although, in the international scientific community, it often turns out that way.

-Bryan