This is included for the record only.

Gene technology: benefits and risks

21 August 1997

to be held at the National Library Auditorium, Wellington

The discussion of the applications of gene technology is generating a lot of interest throughout the community in New Zealand. The Royal Society of New Zealand is co-ordinating a one day conference followed by an evening public lecture on the benefits and risks of gene technology.

The topics to be discussed include:

• ethical, legal and economic considerations;
• gene research applied to humans, animals and plants (both food and non-food applications);
• health benefits and risks;
• issues for Maori;
• educational aspects.

Part of the programme will be a review of community perceptions summarised in a report from the Talking Technologies conference held in 1996.

A paper on Genetic Engineering: environmental and food safety issues, prepared by Dr A J Conner, will be discussed.

The final session in the afternoon programme will be a discussion of the day's proceedings, the outcome of which will be a report discussing the benefits and risks of gene technology and some general evaluation of the differing risk categories for different applications. There may also be recommendations for further workshops and conferences on special topics.

Conference proceedings will be published.

Evening Public Lecture

The evening session will include a talk by Professor Grant Sutherland, President of the Human Genome Organization, and highlights from the day by a panel of speakers.

Speakers

Some of the speakers will be

• Professor Grant Sutherland (University of Adelaide) President of the Human Genome Organization
• Dr John Birkbeck (Medical Director of the Nutrition Foundation)
• Dr Mike Carson (Forestry Research Institute)
• Dr Tony Conner (Crop and Food Research)
• Prof Diana Hill (AgResearch and University of Otago)
• Ian Johnstone (Facilitator at the Talking Technologies Conference 1996)
• Aroha Te Pareake Mead
• Ministry of Agriculture
• Dr Barbara Nicholas (Bioethics Centre, Dunedin)
• Prof George Petersen (University of Otago)
• Dr Paul Reynolds (HortResearch)
• Prof Barry Scott (Massey University) Member of the Board of the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA)
• Mr Andrew Sporle (Manager of Maori Health Research, Health Research Council)