dcu-logoThe Scientific Kick-Off Meeting of the COST Action IS1201 on Disaster Bioethics was held at Dublin City University (DCU), Ireland on 25-26 April 2013. During the meeting, the 4 working groups of the action met for the first time and discussed their next projects and fixed the working plan for the first year. In addition to the working group meetings, some keynote lectures stimulated more general discussion among the whole group. Directions to DCU and a Campus Map are available at: http://www.dcu.ie/info/about.shtml

Schedule

Thursday April 25

12:00 Official Opening
Mr Jim Dowling, Deputy President, Dublin City University
12:10 - 13:00 Keynote 1
Refugee Background Communities (Post) Disaster: The Canterbury Earthquakes and Implications for Research
Dr Jay Marlowe, University of Auckland
(Abstract, PPT & Audio recording below)
13:00 - 14:00 Lunch
14:00 - 16:30 Working Group Meetings (in parallel)
WG1 (Healthcare) & WG4 (Governance) 
16:30 - 17:00 Coffee
17:00 - 18:00 Keynote 2
How disasters expose the limitations of standard ethical guidelines
Dr. Chiara Lepora, Middle East Program Manager, Médicins Sans Frontières
(Abstract, PPT & audio recording below)
18:30  Dinner (ticket only)

 

 Friday April 26

09:00 - 10:00 Working Group Meetings (in parallel)
WG2 (Bioethics) & WG3 (Research) 
10:00 - 10:30 Coffee 
10:30 - 11:45  Continuation of Working Group Meetings (in parallel)
WG2 (Bioethics) & WG3 (Research) 
12:00 - 13:00 Keynote 3 
The Sympathetic State
Prof Michele Landis Dauber, Stanford University
(Abstract & audio recording below)
13:00 - 14:00 Lunch
14:00 - 14:45 Keynote 4 
Ethics in Epidemics, Pandemics, and Public Health Crises: WHO’s activities
Dr Andreas Reis, Ethics & Health, World Health Organization (Abstract below)
14:45 - 15:00 Concluding Remarks and Action Next Steps
Donal O'Mathuna

 

Abstracts and Recordings of the Keynote Lectures

Keynote 1: Jay Marlowe
Refugee Background Communities (Post) Disaster: The Canterbury Earthquakes and Implications for Research

The Canterbury earthquakes and more than 10,000 subsequent aftershocks have created significant adversity and challenges for resettled refugee background communities living in Christchurch. This paper presents a qualitative study with multiple refugee background communities about their perspectives and responses to this particular disaster to illustrate their forms of resilience, capacities and potential vulnerabilities that exist within and across distinct communities. As there are still on-going aftershocks more than two years after the most devastating earthquake and concerns remain for the next ‘big one’, conducting ethical and safe research in a seismically active region is paramount. The associated processes of recruitment, working with interpreters, building relationships with specific communities, liaising with key service providers and engaging with people’s lived experiences in respectful and safe ways, demonstrate the complexities of conducting research with culturally and linguistically diverse populations in disaster and recovery contexts. Alongside a discussion of capacity building for communities impacted by major events, this paper will pose a number of pragmatic, methodological and ethical implications of conducting disaster related research with diverse populations.
Powerpoint Presentation (click)

Listen to the recording of the lecture by Jay Marlowe:

Download mp3 (right click --> save link as)

 

 

Keynote 2: Chiara Lepora
How disasters expose the limitations of standard ethical guidelines

A variety of ethical standards and guidelines exist to support decision making in disaster contexts. Nonetheless, humanitarian responders intervening in disasters take little advantage of what exists. This presentation will show, through the description of first-hand experience in various disaster contexts,   the limitations of standard guidelines in the ethical approach to disaster management. By pointing out existing ethical challenges in disaster relief, the discussion aims at creating a better understanding between field responders and bioethics experts and researchers.
Powerpoint Presentation (click)

Listen to the recording of the lecture by Chiara Lepora:

Download mp3 (right click --> save link as)

 

 

Keynote 3: Michele Landis Dauber
The Sympathetic State

Even as unemployment rates soared during the Great Depression, FDR’s relief and social security programs faced attacks in Congress and the courts based on the legitimacy of federal aid to the growing population of poor. In response, New Dealers made what may seem a curious move. They pointed to a long tradition—dating back to 1790 and now largely forgotten—of federal aid to victims of disaster. In this talk, based on my new book The Sympathetic State (Chicago Press December 2012), I recover and explain this crucial aspect of American history, tracing the roots of the modern American welfare state beyond the New Deal and the Progressive Era back to the earliest days of the republic, when relief was forthcoming for the victims of wars, fires, floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes. In this talk I will use a variety of materials, including newspapers, legal briefs, political speeches, art and literature of the time, and letters from thousands of ordinary Americans to show that while this long history of government disaster relief has faded from historical memory today, it was extremely well-known to advocates of an expanded role for the national government in the 1930s. Making this connection required framing the Great Depression as a disaster afflicting citizens through no fault of their own. I argue that the disaster paradigm, though successful in establishing and defending the New Deal, would ultimately come back to haunt advocates for social welfare. By not making a more radical case for relief, proponents of the New Deal helped create the weak, uniquely American welfare state we have today—one torn between the desire to come to the aid of those suffering and the deep-rooted suspicion that those in need are responsible for their own deprivation. The history I recount supplants the conventional view that the partial and limited quality of the American welfare state stems from its origins in party politics, Civil War pensions, or a general American hostility to government aid. In doing so, I uncover the historical origins of the modern American welfare state and give a radically new understanding of the American system of social provision.

Listen to the recording of the lecture by Michele L. Dauber:

Download mp3 (right click --> save link as)

 

 

Keynote 4: Andreas Reis
Ethics in Epidemics, Pandemics, and Public Health Crises: WHO’s activities

This presentation will discuss WHO’s work in the area of Ethics in Epidemics, Pandemics, and Public Health Crises. It will first describe the main outcomes of a consultation on research ethics in pandemics and outbreaks. Second, it will present a draft training course WHO is currently developing, and third give an outlook to future plans. Finally, it will discuss how the COST Action and WHO could collaborate to achieve common goals.

Listen to the recording of the lecture by Andreas Reis:
Link to internal resource (lecture only available for action members)