FIRST MEETING OF THE WORLD CONGRESS FOR FREEDOM OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
Programme
First day (February 16, 2006) – morning
Opening Ceremony
1. Marco Cappato (Executive Director of the Luca Coscioni Association), chair
2. Video message on Luca Coscioni
3. Mirella Parachini (Member of the Board of Directors of the Luca Coscioni Association) reading a message by José Saramago (Nobel Prize for Literature; Honour President of the Luca Coscioni Association)
4. Luca Coscioni (President of the Luca Coscioni Association)
5. On behalf of the Committee of Promoters, Elena Cattaneo (Department of Pharmacological Sciences and Centre of Excellence on Neurodegenerative Diseases, University of Milan, Italy)
6. Mirella Parachini, reading some messages to the Congress
7. Marco Cappato, “A permanent congress against fundamentalisms”
8. Daniel Perry (Vice President, Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, United States)
9. Gilberto Corbellini (Professor of History of Medicine and Bioethics, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Italy)
10. Video-message by Janez Potocnik (European Commissioner for Science and Research), “Is freedom of science limited by ethical concerns?”
11. John Harris (FMedSci, BA, DPhil, Sir David Alliance Professor of Bioethics, Institute of Medicine Law and Bioethics, School of Law, University of Manchester)
12. Piergiorgio Strata (MD, PhD, Professor of Neurophysiology at the University of Turin, Italy; Director of the Rita Levi Montalcini Center for Brain Repair and President of the National Institute of Neuroscience)
13. Conclusions by Marco Cappato
First day – afternoon
14. Introduction by Mirella Parachini, chair
15. Giulio Cossu (Director of the Stem Cell Research Institute Dibit, San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, co-chair
Session: “Science, Society and Politics” (part 1)
16. Lewis Wolpert (Emeritus Professor of Biology as Applied to Medicine, Anatomy, University College, London), “Is science dangerous?”
17. Carl Djerassi (Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, Stanford University, California), “Can research be forbidden?”
18. John Harris, “Scientific research is a moral duty”
19. Gilberto Corbellini, “Scientific and political freedom: the scientists’ ethos and the evolution of individual human rights in Western societies”
– Interventions from the floor by:

a. Agius
b. Balaban
c. Corbellini
d. Djerassi
e. Harris
f. La Forgia
g. Mamè
h. Piccinini
i. Villa
j. Wolpert

Session: “Science, Society and Politics” (part 2)
Debate: “Political Manipulation of Science”
20. Marco Cappato, chair
21. Anne Barzin (Vice-President of the Economical Commission, Belgian Parliament), “Cells troubling politics”
22. Marco Perduca (Member of the Luca Coscioni Association Board of Directors; Executive Director of the International Anti-prohibitionist League), co-chair
23. Ugo Intini (Member of the Italian Parliament), “Italy and scientific research”
24. Carla Rossi (Member of the European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction, Lisbon, Portugal), “Scientific data concerning illegal drugs”
25. Mino Vianello (Professor of Economic Sociology, Faculty of Statistics, University of Rome “La Sapienza”; Descartes Prize for Social Sciences), “The various freedoms of research”
– Interventions from the floor by:

a. Cordedda
b. Cuocolo
c. Losurdo
d. Perduca
e. Strata
f. Townsend
g. Wolpert
h. Zilgavis

Second day (February 17, 2006) – morning
Session: “Stem Cell Science and Policies” (Part 1)
26. Elena Cattaneo, chair
27. Bernard Siegel (Executive Director of the Genetics Policy Institute, United States), co-chair
28. Michael Gazzaniga (Member of the President’s Council on Bioethics, United States), “Stem cells, neuroscience and politics”
29. Bernat Soria (Director of CABIMER – Andalusian Center for Molecular Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Sevilla, Spain), “Cell therapy using embryonic stem cells: clinical needs, hypes and hopes”
30. Debra J.H. Mathews (PhD, MA, Assistant Director for Science Programs, Phoebe R Berman Bioethics Institute, Johns Hopkins University), “Interstate collaboration in stem cell research”
31. Miodrag Stojkovic (Professor and Deputy Director of Principe Felipe Centre, Valencia, Spain), “Progress in nuclear transfer technique and embryonic stem cell biology: too fast, too scary?”
32. Daniel Perry, “Regenerative medicine under attack in America: how scientists and patients are responding”
– Interventions from the floor by:

a. Balaban
b. Gazzaniga
c. Giordano
d. Harris
e. Mathews
f. Perduca
g. Perry
h. Soria
i. Wolpert

Second day (February 17, 2006) – morning (part 2)
Round Table: “Stem Cells and Public Opinion”
33. Pia Locatelli (Member of the European Parliament), “European funds for research”
34. Marìa Jesùs Montero (Regional Minister of Health, Andalusia, Spain), “Research, democracy and freedom: the case of Andalusia”
35. Bernard Siegel, “Building a global constituency for stem cell research”
36. Giulio Cossu, “The experience of the Italian referendum on stem cells”
37. Marisa Jaconi (Department of Pathology and Immunology, Geneva University), “The Swiss case”
38. Lanfranco Turci (Member of the Italian Parliament), “After the referendum”
39. Ofra Balaban (Chair of CHEN – Patient Fertility Association, Israel), “Research in Israel”
40. Pietro Barbieri (Chair of Federazione Italiana Superamento Handicap- FISH), “People with disabilities, not patients”
41. Conclusions by Marco Cappato
– Interventions from the floor by:

a. Balaban
b. Jaconi
c. Locatelli
d. Strata
e. Vittorioso

Second day, afternoon
Session: “Stem Cell Science and Policies” (Part 2)
42. Pasqualina Napoletano (Member of the European Parliament), chair, also speaking on “Research and development: a virtuous circle”
43. Philippe Busquin (Member of the European Parliament; former European Commissioner for Science and Research), “European perspectives for research”
44. Nüket Yetiş (Acting President of TUBITAK, Turkey), “Science, technology and competitiveness: revising the borders between science and technology”
45. Piergiorgio Strata, “Freedom of access to a scientific career”
46. Conclusions by Pasqualina Napoletano

Round table: “Open Access to Science”
47. Marco Perduca, “Free does not mean free of charge”
48. Gianfranco Bangone (Co-Editor of the Italian scientific review Darwin), “The challenges of Open Access”
49. Tiziano Barberi (PhD, Senior Scientist, Stem Cell and Tumor Biology Laboratory – Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York), “The impact of Open Access on biomedical research”
50. Imma Subirats (Data Management Specialist, FAO), “Open Access filing system”
51. Rodney Townsend (Royal Society of Chemistry, London, United Kingdom), “Several patterns of Open Access”
– Interventions from the floor by:

a. Abbott
b. Nicolini
c. Perduca
d. Vogel

Session: “Science, Ethics and the Ethics of Scientific Research”
52. Marco Cappato, chair
53. Colin Blakemore (FMedSci, FRS, Chief Executive of the Medical Research Council; Waynflete Professor of Physiology, University of Oxford, United Kingdom), “Freedom and responsibility in medical research”
54. Leonor Parreira (Professor of Histology and Embryology, Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon, on behalf of Minister of Health of Portugal), “Freedom of scientific research. Inside the science”

Round table: “Genetic Determinism and Eugenics”
55. Cesare Galli (Director of the Laboratory of Reproductive Technologies, Cremona, Italy), “Somatic cell nuclear transfer in animals: lessons for the future”
56. Antonino Forabosco (Professor of Medical Genetics, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy), “The new latinorum for media campaigns against biomedical sciences”
– Interventions from the floor by:

a. Casciotti
b. Santosuosso

Third day (February 18, 2006)
Session: “Science and Law”

57. Amedeo Santosuosso (Judge of the Milan Court of Appeal; President of the Interdepartmental Centre “European Centre for Life Sciences, Health and the Courts”, University of Pavia, Italy), “What constitutional protection for freedom of scientific research?”
58. Charles H. Baron (Professor of Constitutional Law, Health Law, Law and Bioethics, Law School, Boston College, United States), “Legal methodologies for maximizing freedom of scientific research”
59. Fabio Marazzi (Professor of International Law, University of Bergamo, Italy), “The evolution of the intellectual property landscape”
60. Demetrio Neri (Full Professor of Bioethics, University of Messina; Vice-President of the Italian Bioethics Committee), “Stem cell science and policies: the Italian debate and legislation from an European perspective”
– Interventions from the floor by:

a. Balaban
b. Baron
c. Blakemore
d. Corbellini
e. Djerassi
f. Jaconi
g. Marazzi
h. Neri
i. Santosuosso
j. Siegel

Conclusions
61. Emma Bonino (Member of the European Parliament), “A synergy for freedom of research”
62. Marco Cappato, “Conclusions”

– Interventions from the floor by:

a. Balaban
b. Cappato
c. Corbellini
d. Cordedda
e. Forabosco
f. Garcia
g. Jaconi
h. Neri
i. Paganini
j. Parachini

k. Siegel
l. Strata
m. Tolun
n. Townsend
o. Trupiano
p. Viale
q. Vianello
r. Villa
s. Wolpert