1152nd General Monthly Meeting
Embryonic stem cell research in Australia: Insights from the Lockhart Review
Professor Peter Schofield, Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute
Date: Wednesday, 6th June 2007
Time: 6:30 for 7:00 pm
Venue: Conference Room 1, Darlington Centre, City Road
(City Road, side entrance to the Forum Restaurant)
You are invited to join the speaker at dinner after the lecture. There is no charge for lectures and visitors are most welcome.
ABSTRACT
In 2005 Professor Peter Schofield was appointed by the then Minister for the Ageing, the Hon Julie Bishop, to the Legislation Review Committee, chaired by the late Hon Justice John Lockhart AO QC, to review the Federal Prohibition of Human Cloning Act 2002 & the Research Involving Human Embryos Act 2002. The 54 recommendations of the Lockhart Reviews formed the basis of a Private Members Bill sponsored by Senator Kay Patterson, a former Health Minister, and was passed as the "Prohibition of Human Cloning for Reproduction and the Regulation of Human Embryo Research Amendment Bill 2006" on December 6, 2006. Professor Schofield and other members of the Lockhart Committee spent considerable time in providing information and commentary to the public, especially through the media, and engaging in dialogue with politicians as the Bills were drafted and debated. This process involved an interesting mixture of science, politics and ethics applied to advocacy to politicians, the press and the public. An analysis of this experience should be of interest and relevance to all areas of scientific advocacy.
Enquiries: Prof. P.A. Williams
email: P.Williams@uws.edu.au
or phone the Society – details on Introduction page.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Professor Peter Schofield is Executive Director and CEO of the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute and a conjoint Professor of Medicine at the University of New South Wales. Peter's research interests focus on identifying genes that lead to dementia, including Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia, on genes that predispose to mental illness, especially bipolar disorder and, on understanding how signalling occurs in the brain.