Student Organizations

Ethics, Law and Biotechnology (E.L.A.B.)

Upcoming Events | Recent Programs | Board | Our Philosophy | Links

Built from the ground up by Harvard Law School students, E.L.A.B. is a society of students and faculty working to create a forum for study, analysis, and debate about how biotechnology ought to be shaped through the new century. Our goal is to bring together cutting-edge science and medicine, with solid ethical, legal and policy analysis.

E.L.A.B. often works closely with the newly created Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics to sponsor different speakers and forums on biotechnology and ethics-related issues. In addition, many of our members are Petrie-Flom student fellows and are engaged in research on a variety of topics.

If you'd like to be on our email list, so as to receive notice of meetings and events, please drop us a line.

Letter to Incoming 1Ls

Welcome to HLS! E.L.A.B. is a society of students and faculty working to create a forum for study, analysis, and debate about how biotechnology ought to be shaped through the new century. Our goal is to bring together cutting-edge science and medicine, with solid ethical, legal and policy analysis. As you will soon see, here at Harvard and in Boston we are privileged to be part of a rich community of teaching hospitals, universities, legal and medical professionals, non-government organizations, biotechnology firms, and research laboratories. It is E.L.A.B.'s mission to draw upon this community to create a vigorous marketplace of ideas aimed at shaping a policy and vision for genetics in the new century. We bring in speakers on a range of topics and from a range of disciplines, frequently co-sponsoring events with the Petrie-Flom Center. This past year, for example, we hosted a talk on licensing agreements and international access to medicines and another on the ethical and legal limits of re-engineering human biology. In addition to our larger panels and presentations, we regularly hold roundtable discussions with the student contributors to the Journal on Law, Medicine and Ethics and happy hours for our members.

If you would like to be added to our email list to receive event notifications, or if you would like to become more involved in E.L.A.B., please contact us. We look forward to meeting you!

Elizabeth Gerber
Matthew Shinners
Rochelle Lee
Spike Loy

Upcoming Events

1L Happy Hour
Roundtable student discussions on recent developments in healthcare

Recent Programs

This year and in years before, we have hosted a wide range of events, including:

From Discovery to Delivery: The Impact of University/Biotech Licensing Agreements on Access to Medicines in the Developing World
Re-Engineering Human Biology: What Should be the Ethical and Legal Limits?
Happy Hour in the Hark Terrace Lounge to welcome the 1Ls and kick-off the new year
A panel discussion and presentation on "Health Care Fraud Enforcement in the Pharmaceutical Sector," presented by Sidley Austin LLP. Click here for more information.
A roundtable titled, RISK: The Science and Law of Pharmaceuticals, featuring HLS students Jacqueline Cohen and Ben Falit, who recently published papers in the Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics. (Co-sponsored with Law and Healthcare Society.)
A screening and discussion of the film, GATTACA.
“What the Election Results Will Do for Stem Cell Research.” A talk by Dr. Glen McGee, Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania.
“Cloning and Stem Cells: Laying the Groundwork for a Responsible Debate.” A talk by O. Carter Snead, General Counsel, President’s Council on Bioethics (Co-Sponsored with The Society for Law, Life & Religion).
“Legal/Ethical Analysis of the Widespread Use of Genetic Information.” A talk by Dr. Gil Siegal, MD, LLB.
“From BALCO to Bioethics.” Panel presentation and discussion on the role of performance enhancement in sport.

Board

Please contact any of our board-members with any questions, ideas, or to get involved. We also have openings for 1L members and others who would like to help lead the organization.

Elizabeth Gerber, Co-President
Matthew Shinners, Co-President
Rochelle Lee,Treasurer
Spike Loy, Secretary

Our Philosophy

Committed to the notion that the process of rule-making for science and health care should be democratic and informed, E.L.A.B. aims toward a more organic integration of ethical considerations in academic, government, and private-sector decision making. We seek to draw upon Boston’s rich community of teaching hospitals, universities, legal and medical professionals, non-government organizations, biotechnology firms, and research laboratories to create a vigorous marketplace of ideas aimed at shaping a policy and vision for genetics in the new century.

Genomics, medical engineering, and other biotechnologies will change human societies in profound ways, shaping our health care, our environment, our food, our economy, our science, even our conception of what it is to be human. These changes carry opportunity for good, and for evil. The challenge will be to shape these changes in ways that maximize potential benefits, and minimize insult to basic human values.

Scientists, entrepreneurs, politicians, and individuals disagree about the extent to which the “new genetics” ought to be controlled and shaped by public policy. Assuming some regulation is desirable, who should decide the rules? What should those rules look like? Can they effectively balance such disparate and potentially conflicting values as corporate profit, scientific progress, privacy, and public health?

As critical research in the field of human genetics moves out of government-funded laboratories and into private sector firms, one thing is clear: our social institutions are lagging far behind the science. Because of the significant long-term consequences of genetic manipulation, goals must be formulated, policies executed.

Take basic DNA as an example. DNA has certain properties that make it a complex legal object: it is in code; its functions are difficult to grasp and still largely obscure, even to scientific experts; it is part of us, part of each of our cells, and yet is now able to be manipulated and reproduced; its code is held in common by all humans with some variations, variations that tend to diminish among ethnically discrete populations; it has terrific potential value for public health, and yet deriving value from genetic information requires large capital investment and is aided by the study of homogeneous populations.

Legal problems abound. How exactly DNA comports with notions of property is unclear, and certainly the patent regime for genes being promoted by the United States deserves scrutiny. The scientific complexity of genetic process makes meaningful public participation in law making and regulation difficult. Further, the unique tensions raised between the individual and group DNA and also conflicts of interest of researchers and patients threaten the adequacy of “informed consent” as an effective protection against the infringement of basic rights.

There are also basic questions of access. In this age of globalization, international consensus ought to shape the “new genetics,” not an unfettered market process that simply reinforces existing economic hegemonies. Can the benefits of the “new genetics” have an equitable distribution across countries rich and poor?

Links

HLS Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics

HLS Law and Healthcare Society.

Harvard B-School's Healthcare Club.

Harvard School of Public Health's Health Policy Forum.

Harvard Grad School of A&S Biotechnology Club.

Harvard Med-School's Health Caucus.

American Society for Law, Medicine & Ethics, headquartered in Boston.

Bioethics.net

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