ESRC Festival of Social Science
The ESRC Festival of Social Science is an annual week long programme of events held across the UK designed to communicate information about the social sciences and how social science impacts on our lives. In 2010 the Festival will run from Friday 12 March until Sunday 21 March and the EGN will be hosting two events:
The Cesagen contribution to the Festival will be a public meeting, The Future of the Codex Alimentarius which will be of interest to those persons and organisations concerned about food security policies and more specifically the role of the Codex in ensuring food safety globally. This includes policy makers from government, the private sector, and various non-governmental organisations, biotechnology and biosafety researchers, as well as social scientists, and science journalists. Interested students are welcome as well. The event will take place on 16 March 2010 in Meeting Room 3 at the Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS) building, Lancaster University, beginning at 11am. Further details.
The Egenis contribution to the Festival will be a public meeting, 'Non-invasive prenatal genetic testing - a moral maze?' This will be a ‘Moral Maze’-type discussion of the issues surrounding the development of non-invasive prenatal genetic diagnosis (NIPD). Recent advances mean that it is becoming possible to screen for a limited variety of genetic conditions through normal blood testing, avoiding the need for risky procedures such as amniocentesis. More expansive prenatal tests, for example, testing for conditions like Down Syndrome, or pre-disposition to disease, are on the horizon. How much do members of the public know about these emerging testing procedures and what do they think? Are the tests viewed as a quicker and easier way to identify genetic disorders before birth, or the thin end of the wedge in a culture that desires 'perfect' babies? Will NIPD improve reproductive health care, or turn all pregnancies into a moral maze? Is NIPD a social good, or a social harm?
Speakers, or 'witnesses', will include Helen Wallace, director of GeneWatch UK, Jane Fisher, director of the charity ARC (Antenatal Results and Choices), and Susan Kelly and Hannah Farrimond of Egenis. The event, which will be free and open to all, will be held at Exeter Central Library at 7.00pm on Tuesday, 16 March 2010.
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Last year as part of the Festival of Social Science the EGN organised a debate in London:
12 March 2009
Is Embryo Research the Limit?
10 March 2009
Future of Medicine: Genetic Knowledge and Mental Illness
10 March 2009
The Future of Medicine: Innovation from bench to bedside
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