US-India Workshop: Genetic Determinism, Sikkim, India, December 2003

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Description: This award supports travel for a small US delegation to participate in the US-India workshop on Genetic Determinism that will be held in Sikkim, India during December 2003. Drs. Stuart Newman, New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY and Vadyanand Nanjundiah, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore are the organizers of the meeting, which will critically examine the gene-based philosophy that dominates modern biology and medicine. They will convene a five-day international meeting to discuss the theoretical, applied, ethical and philosophical issues surrounding genetic determinism. Ethical and philosophical considerations on genetic engineering have typically been examined in isolation from purely scientific and technical ones, without any attempt to include historical perspectives from either the history of medicine or the history of science. Scope: Discussion of relevant issues will be important for biologists working in the laboratory, those concerned with food production and agriculture, medical and health care professionals, philosophers, and the general public. India with its great philosophical and ethical tradition, and advanced scientific culture appears to be on the verge of making a major commitment to large-scale genetic manipulation of crop plants. It is important that the full range of issues raised by genetic modification be discussed, debated and broadly disseminated as issues of vital public interest and public understanding of science.