Simon Woods

While IHEU embarks on a programme of public education and lobbying in bioethics, how do well established organisations and institutions approach the subject? Dr. Simon Woods who made a guest presentation at the IHEU Congress outlines the philosophy and work of the Policy Ethics and Life Sciences Research Institute (PEALS), a Bioethics "think-tank" located at the University of Newcastle, UK.

The Peals Model

PEALS is an unusual organisation as it combines the work of an academic research centre, supported and funded by the Universities of Durham and Newcastle, with funding from the public and voluntary sector to engage in research and public engagement activities. The PEALS "model" is to work in collaboration with other parties to conduct world class research that aims to inform and improve policymaking, professional practice and public engagement with the life sciences. A significant contribution to the success of this model is the fact that PEALS is located within a visionary "science village" - a contemporary development that combines one of the most successful science education centres, The International Centre for Life (CfL) with publicly funded health research institutes, UK National Health Service clinics and private bio-tech companies, encircling a lively and popular public space.

The small team of core staff at PEALS is comprised of social scientists and philosophers but PEALS is able to draw upon a much wider network, locally, nationally and internationally of lawyers, theologians, scientists as well as other social scientists, philosophers and even creative artists. There are three main areas of PEALS activities, teaching and learning, public engagement and funded research.

Public Engagement

Public engagement activities include a well established Café Scientifique network, which provides a platform for leading scientists and thinkers to address a non-specialist audience in an informal setting and to engage the audience in debate and discussion. Topics have varied from "should medicine help us to have a good death?" to "Is the speed of light variable?"

Another aspect of PEALS public engagement work are the "Sci-Art" projects - these are serious attempts to bring artists and scientists together to explore the sometimes complementary and sometimes different approaches taken by artists and scientist to a common subject area. Another aim of "Sci-Art" is to address the problem of the public understanding of science. Public perception often sees science as not accountable, un-democratic, and inaccessible. Young people in particular feel alienated from science and there is often a fear of and ignorance about science. These projects recognise that there is a need for a wider debate and involvement and so by using the arts PEALS attempts to bring the two cultures together. A current project is utilising our writer in residence to explore the perceptions and misconceptions of
behavioural genetics amongst gay and lesbian communities.

Research

In its 5 years of existence PEALS has been awarded over £2 million in research grants, a major achievement in the social science field. Examples of our funded research include:

• Clinical genetic databases (Bio-banks)
• Embryo donation for research purposes
• Ordinary ethics - how non-specialists think about ethical issues
• Forensic databases - bio-banks for criminal investigation
• Healthy Ageing
• Gene-expression (ethics and regulation of research using foetal tissue)
• Nano-technology (ethical issues in its application to the health context.

PEALS model in action

PEALS has had all strands of its work engaged by a number of very specific and historically significant developments at Newcastle. Since its inception PEALS has collaborated closely with the Institute of Human Genetics and the Newcastle Fertility Centre also based at the CfL. In 2004 Newcastle scientists at the CfL were granted a licence by the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the Legal Authority responsible for regulating embryo and human stem cell research, to conduct research using cell nuclear transfer technology, so-called "therapeutic cloning." The scientists were granted permission to carry out pioneering research to create stem cells from unfertilized human eggs. This was the first time in the UK that such a licence had been granted. The aim of the research is to understand how diseases develop and may lead to the development of new treatments for a range of diseases including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and diabetes. In 2005 Professor Alison Murdoch and Dr Miodrag Stojkovic, the scientists leading the project, announced their success in cloning a human embryo, an announcement that came hot on the heels of the Korean announcement of their success at cloning. The team will now aim to perfect the technique to ensure an adequate supply of embryo derived stem cells for the later stages of the research.

On the back of these announcements PEALS has launched a number of public events to discuss cell nuclear transfer and related topics such as "designer babies" and pre-natal genetic diagnosis (PGD). There is strong public support for this research in the UK despite the perennial concerns over the "moral" status of the foetus expressed internationally. PEALS recognises the need to acknowledge these concerns but has chosen to focus on the area of ethical concern that is raised by the conduct of this research and not on the question of whether this research should be permitted or not.

All details of PEALS work including contact details can be found at http://www.ncl.ac.uk/peals .

Dr Simon Woods is one of the directors of PEALS.