The Harvard Law School Library staff invite you to attend a book talk and discussion in celebration of Specimen Science: Ethics and Policy Implications (MIT Press, Sept. 2017) edited by Holly Fernandez Lynch, Barbara E. Bierer, I. Glenn Cohen and Suzanne M. Rivera. This talk is co-sponsored by the Harvard Law School Library, the Countway Library of Medicine, and the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology & Bioethics.
Copies of Specimen Science will be available for sale and Professor Bierer, Professor Cohen, and Professor Rivera will be available for signing books at the end of the talk.
Thursday, November 9, 2017 at noon, with lunch
Lahey Room, Countway Library at Harvard Medical School (Map & Directions)
10 Shattuck St. Boston, MA 02115
About Specimen Science: Ethics and Policy Implications
“Advances in medicine often depend on the effective collection, storage, research use, and sharing of human biological specimens and associated data. But what about the sources of such specimens? When a blood specimen is drawn from a vein in your arm, is that specimen still you? Is it your property, intellectual or otherwise? Should you be allowed not only to consent to its use in research but also to specify under what circumstances it may be used? These and other questions are at the center of a vigorous debate over the use of human biospecimens in research. In this book, experts offer legal, regulatory, and ethical perspectives on balancing social benefit and human autonomy in biospecimen research.
After discussing the background to current debates as well as several influential cases, including that of Henrietta Lacks, the contributors consider the rights, obligations, risks, and privacy of the specimen source; different types of informed consent under consideration (broad, blanket, and specific); implications for special patient and researcher communities; and the governance of biospecimen repositories and the responsibilities of investigators.” — MIT Press
Moderator
I. Glenn Cohen, Harvard Law School Professor of Law, and Faculty Director of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology & Bioethics
Panelists
Barbara E. Bierer, Program Director, Regulatory Foundations, Ethics, and Law Program, Harvard Catalyst and Faculty Director, Multi-Regional Clinical Trials Center of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard (MRCT Center)
Jane Perlmutter, Cancer Survivor and Patient Advocate
Suzanne M. Rivera, Vice President for Research and Assistant Professor of Bioethics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine