Genetic Privacy Panel

Panel: Genetic Privacy

Friday, April 22, 2005, at 3:00 PM Vorenberg Classroom at Langdell Hall, Harvard Law School

Moderator

Thomas Saunders specializes in representing emerging medical technology, biotechnology/genetic engineering and pharmaceutical concerns, particularly as to patent prosecution, patent strategy and IP licensing matters. His practice also includes interference practice, trademark and copyright matters. He was named in 2004 as a Massachusetts "Super Lawyer" by the publishers of Law & Politics. Mr. Saunders has a substantial background in biotechnology and chemical patent practice, facilitated by his graduate studies in physiology at Case Western Reserve University and Albany Medical College. He has also been in-house patent counsel in the pharmaceutical industry.

Panelists

George J. Annas is the Edward R. Utley Professor of Health Law, Chairman of Health Law Department at the Boston University School of Public Health. He holds a degree in law from Harvard Law School and an M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health. He is a widely published national expert in the field of law and medicine, whose books include The Rights of Patients and Some Choice: Law, Medicine and the Market. Professor Annas is the cofounder of Global Lawyers & Physicians and the Patients Rights Project. Professor Annas has appeared on 60 Minutes, Nightline, Frontline, Today, and Good Morning America as well as the nightly news programs of NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox. For five years, he was the director of the Boston University School of Law’s Center for Law and Health Sciences. Professor Annas teaches bioethics.

James G. Hodge, Jr., J.D., LL.M., is an Associate Public Health Professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health where he teaches courses on health information privacy, bioethics and the law, and international human rights and health. He is the Executive Director for the Center for the Law and the Public's Health, a Core Faculty member with the Berman Bioethics Institute at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a member of the Steering Committee for the Information Security Institute at Johns Hopkins. Professor Hodge is also an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center where he has lectured in constitutional law, public health law, bioethics, international human rights, genetics law and policy, and health law. Professor Hodge has drafted (with others) several public health law reform initiatives, including the Model State Public Health Information Privacy Act (MSPHPA), the Turning Point Model State Public Health Act, and the Center's Model State Emergency Health Powers Act (MSEHPA). Additional areas of research include new federalism, genetic privacy and anti-discrimination, partner notification, legal approaches to bioethics, the human right to health, and additional areas in public health law. Professor Hodge speaks extensively at national and regional conferences and before legislative and policy-making bodies on these and other health topics.

Dr. Gil Siegal MD LLB is an associate professor at Haifa University's law school, and a visiting professor at University of Virginia Law School, where he teaches Comparative Health Law. He was a Fellow in Health Policy and Ethics at the University of Virginia School of Law during 2003-04, and is currently a Fellow in Medical Ethics at Harvard University Medical School. Siegal has taught at in Israel since 1996, and in 2002 joined the International Center for Health, Law and Ethics at Haifa as a senior lecturer. Siegal has also taught at the Tel Aviv University Medical School and at Manchester University Law School in Hakirya Ha'academit, Israel. Siegal's scholarly interests include health law, genetics and biotechnology, organ transplantation, and bioethics. He is a member of several organizations focused on genetic studies, including Israel's Committee on Human Genetic Research and the Israeli National Advisory Committee on Genetic Information. He also served on Israel's National Committee for the 'Right to Die' Act 2000-2002. Siegal is a member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Medicine and Law and was on the review panel of the Israeli Medical Association Journal and the Journal of Medical Ethics.