AGENDA : Social Issues Committee, ASHG Wednesday, October 1, 1969, 4:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M. Parlor C, Sheraton Palace Hotel, San Francisco - 1. Definition of committee's role 2. How should committee operate? Frequency of meetings? Subcommittees? ; 3. Should Jensen report be considered by us?” : 4, Selection of topics for committee deliberation. 5. Discussion of initial topic selected for deliberation 6. New business * The Atlantic City meeting of the committee was not held. Am. Soe. of Nomav GeveTies Minutes Social Issues Committee Conference Call March 4, 1970 Members present: Dr. Alexander Bearn, Dr. Barton Childs, Dr. James F. Crow, Dr. Joshua Lederberg, Dr. James V. Neel; Dr. Robert F. Murray, Jr., Dr. Jean Cortner, Dr. Irene A. Uchida, Dr. Arno G. Motulsky, Chairman. The first item of discussion was the consideration of the program to be set up by the committee for the yearly meeting. There was agreement to have a symposium to deal with intrauterine diagnosis. A symposium to deal with environmental mutagenesis was suggested for the future. It was the consensus that this symposium should be published, ideally in a medium which has wider publication than the American Journal of Human Genetics. It was pointed out that the Fogarty International Center at NIH will have a similar symposium in May which will be attended by a small group only. The Fogarty symposium will be published and it was pointed out that Dr. Wright will put on a symposium dealing with some of thése issues in November in Denver. The details of the program were discussed. The first speaker would deal with chromosomal aspects of fetal diagnosis and Dr. Macintyre was suggested. The second speaker would deal with biochemical aspects of fetal diagnosis. Suggestions for speakers were Kaback, Bob de Mars, Seegmiller, Littlefield and Nadler. Possibly, two different speakers might be chosen for this topic. The next topic would be social issues of abortion with some discussion of the moral- ethical issues. Jim Lieberman, a psychiatrist of the National Insti- tute of Mental Health was suggested. Genetic effects of abortion would be discussed by Motulsky and Fraser. *Another speaker would deal with problems of maternal and fetal mortality and morbidity regarding abortions as well as the administrative problems of reference centers. Arthur Steinberg was suggested as one of the possibilities for some of the administrative aspects and an obstetrician to deal with the fetal and maternal morbidity. The issue of the reply to the Jensen report by Bodmer was dis- cussed. Dr. Bodmer and Caralli Sforze, possibly together with Dr. Lederberg and a sociologist will prepare such a report to be submitted to Science. The issue of screening does not need any further committee atten- tion, but can be submitted for possible action by the National Academy of Science. Dr. Motulsky will write a letter to Dr. Handler asking him to consider the issue and will try to solicit interest on the part of the National Institute for Child and Development or possibly the National Foundation for Genetics and Neuromuscular Diseases to possibly fund such an activity. Dr. Hook's letter regarding a News- March 5, 1970 Social Issues Committee Conference Call Page 2 letter about social issues was discussed. Dr. Cortner was appoin- ted the clearing house regarding these issues. Different members of the committee will write to Dr. Cortner to bring to his attention notices and summaries of articles in the lay press and scientific journals of relevance to social issues in human genetics, notices of particular meetings of societies and Dr. Cortner will transmit the various issues considered by the Social Issues Committee to the Society's secretary for dissemination to the membership. The problem of commissioning a letter regarding LSD and chromo- some damage was brought up. Dr. Lederberg pointed out that the proceedings of a conference sponsored by the NIMH will shortly appear dealing among other topics with LSD and chromosomal damage. This conference report will give a full statement regarding this hazard.