World Congress for Freedom of Scientific Research newsletter -8
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World Congress for Freedom of Scientific Research
the bulletin
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Number 8, January 2010
- New ISSCR´s President on stem cell research and therapies. The new President of the International Society for Stem Cell Research - ISSCR, Irving Weissman, addresses research on all forms of stem cells, including reprogramming and the "sad practice of unapproved stem cell therapies". According to Weissman, "in the final NIH guidelines, the bans remain on funding research using already established parthenogenic and NT pluripotent stem cell lines, however ethically obtained and however faithfully they replicate the pathogenesis of the human diseases from the patient nucleus donor. They do not cite a scientific reason for the ban. I will ask approval of the executive committee, and the society, to continue to call for a reversal of bans on funding research on established, ethically developed human NT and parthenogenic pluripotent stem cell lines". Read more.
- Vandana Shiva: “Population growth should not be viewed as a women’s individual issue. It should be viewed in a social context and conformation”. In the framework of the feature on population growth and sustainability (see bulletin no. 6, November 2009), Dr. Vandana Shiva, the Indian economist and physic, was interviewed by Ms. Cecilia Bevilacqua for Luca Coscioni Association. According to Shiva children are all that a poor family has in the Third World. Population growth is a symptom of economic insecurity, so unless one addresses it as an economic issue of justice, it won’t be effective. Read the full interview.
- Country report on freedom of research: India. The country of the month is India, surveyed by the students of Bryant University, RI, USA. Last update: March 2009. According to the report some contradictions emerge in India in the fields under reference, for instance with human embryonic stem cell research, India is pretty open; the abortion and contraceptive policy is liberal, while euthanasia is punishable under the Penal Code, though illegally practiced. Artificial reproduction techniques are regulated by precise guidelines. The report is still incomplete in some fields. You can help monitoring freedom of research and cure in your country and in the world, read more.
- Nobel Laureate Ivar Giaever remembers Luca Coscioni. In the 4th anniversary of Luca Coscioni´s death, Nobel Laureate Ivar Giaever remembers their meeting at the Founding Session of the World Congress for Freedom of Scientific Research in 2004. Read the full message.
- “Why the 3rd world needs its own view on science” by Miguel Kottow, Universidad Diego Portales, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile: “Side-constraints that are external to science are contextual in nature and therefore more or less unavoidable; they vary from one society to another and throughout time. It is therefore more than probable that science in affluent societies will show a different pattern of side constraints than Third World nations. Poor countries have become the preferred turf of First World sponsors that relocate their research interests in regions where ethical controls are less demanding and research subjects are easier to recruit.” Read the full text on line (from the proceedings of the Second Meeting of the World Congress for Freedom of Scientific Research).
News in brief:
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