The European Society For Philosophy Of Medicine And Healthcare

XVth GENERAL ASSEMBLY ESPMH Qawra, Malta, Friday, 23th August 2002

Draft report

Attendants:
V. Arnason (Iceland), D. Badcott (UK), A. Barbosa (Portugal), J. Barker (USA), M. Battin (USA), N. Biller-Andorno (Germany), A. Dawson (UK), W. Dekkers (Netherlands), A. Gammelgaard (Denmark), E. Gefenas (Lithuania), L. German (Malta), S. Görkey (Turkey), H. ten Have (Netherlands), M. Hayry (Finland), A. Henriques (Portugal), F. Heubel (Germany), S. Hølm (UK), E. Kalamacka (Poland), B. Kaldis (Greece), G. Kimsma (Netherlands), J. Kissell (USA), T. Kontopoulou (Greece), B. Lichterman (Russia), P. Mallia (Malta), L. Nordenfelt (Sweden), A. Nordgren (Sweden), L. Nordin (Sweden), R. Pegoraro (Italy), S. Sahm (Germany), A. Sawada (Japan), Z. Szawarski (Poland), T. Takala (Finland), Z. Zalewski (Poland).

The President, L. Nordenfelt opened the meeting commemorating the death of David Thomasma who has been a dedicated member for years, and has been one of the most prestigious and productive scholars in the area of bioethics and philosophy of medicine.

The suggestion is accepted to discuss agenda item 10 prior to agenda item 8.

1. Draft report of the 14th General Assembly in Lisbon, Portugal.
The report is accepted with the addition that V. Arnason (Iceland) has attended the meeting.

2. Report of the Executive Committee over 2001
a. The secretary reported that the in 2001 three activities have taken most of the secretariat's time. First, the Executive Committee had an extraordinary meeting in January in Linköping to discuss the draft bylaws, developed by Friedrich Heubel. The draft is now on the agenda of the GA. Second, the membership in December 2001 was 345 with members from 36 countries. Several mailings have been sent to the members, including a new Membership Directory with a more accurate translation of the Statutes and an updated list of all members. Third, future conferences have been prepared, including the one in Malta and the 2003 conference in Vilnius. The call for abstract for the Vilnius conference has been launched (deadline: December l, 2002). A proposal has been received to have the 2004 conference in Iceland; this proposal is on the current agenda:
b. The treasurer distributed the final account for 2001. He explained that the expenses for the Lisbon conference have not yet been included in this account . The year account 2001 is -presented in Dutch guilders.

INCOME		EXPENSES
Giro account	5.339,64	Costs giro	53,97
Running account	40.946,64	Cost running acc.	404,59
Conference account	13.896,99	Cost confer.acc.	230,20
Interest giro	14,02	Secretariat	14.000,
Interest running acc.	194,10	Mailings	2.650,42
Interest confer. acc.	101,54	Treasury	1.224,80
Subtotal		Visa	4.142,91
		Return fee	160,
		Kluwer journal	15.264,
		Board costs	1.295,72
		Chamber of Commerce	85,
		Add. costs Krakow	7.712,99
		Positive saldo	13.268,33
Total	60.492,93		60.492,93

3. Report of the Financial Review Committee over 2001.
Drs. Gordijn and Simon, unable to attend, have sent written information to the secretariat that they found the account 2001 in order, with a typographical error which has been corrected. The Financial Account over 2001 has been approved by the GA.

4. Election of Financial Review Committee over 2002. Drs Simon and Gordijn have been re-elected as members of the FRC over 2002.

5. Society's fee The proposal to increase the annual fee for individual members from 37 euro to 40 euro has been accepted. The increase is explained on the basis of the transition to the euro currency. The financial situation of the society is sound.

6. Preliminary budget 2003 The budget proposals made by the Executive Committee and distributed in the meeting have been approved by the assembly. The preliminary budget is in euro

INCOME		EXPENSES
Fees individual (350)	14.000	Secretariat	6.370
Fees institut. (10) ,	2.300	Mailings	2.000
Interest	200	Treasury	1.000
Conference fees (100)	21.000	Board costs	2.000
		Bank/giro costs	330
		Journal	8.000
		Conference	15.000
		Positive saldo	2.800
Total	37.500		37.500

7. Election of new members of Executive Committee.
- First, the history and procedure have been explained. In January 2002, a letter has been sent to all members announcing 4 vacancies (2 members and the offices of Secretary and Treasurer). The members have been invited to nominate candidates. In response, 5 nominations have been received. One nominations was withdrawn since the candidate was not a member. The present members Hølm, Ashcroft, Kimsma and ten Have were standing for re-election. In a later stage Ashcroft has withdrawn as a candidate. The Executive Committee deliberated on the nominations and prepared a proposal to be mailed to all members. In May, the EC proposed to the membership 7 candidates. Members unable to attend the GA have been invited to request a postal ballot sheet. Only 3 members have requested ballot sheets, but no sheets have been returned before the opening of the GA. Finally, it was explained how the current voting procedure with the ballot sheet will be operated.
- F. Heubel raised a question regarding the EC proposal since the grouping of candidates for membership position 1 and 2 restricts the voting possibilities of the GA. It was explained that the EC substantially discussed this alternative, but has concluded that the present proposal best guarantees the requirement of equal distribution of possible EC members. A special committee was installed to count the votes. W. Dekkers and S. Görkey have been chosen as members. The voting procedure was then carried out.
- At the request of the GA voting also took place for the positions of Secretary and Treasurer although for each position only one candidate was available.
- The committee announced the results of the voting.

In total 34 ballot sheets have been received, including 2 empty forms. Therefore 32 valid votes have been collected.
Secretary: H. ten Have (28 votes)
Treasurer: G.Kimsma (23 votes)
Member 1: E. Gefenas (21 votes), J.de Melo (11 votes)
Member 2: S.Hølm (21 votes), A.Wifstad (4 votes), T.Takala (6 votes)

The President concluded that Ten Have, Kimsma, Hølm and Gefenas have been elected as members of the Executive Committee.

8. Forthcoming conferences
- Conference in Malta 2002. The general impression is that the conference is well organized and very pleasant, with an interesting range of presentations.
- Conference 2003. E. Gefenas explained the preparations for the Vilnius conference. The call for abstracts has been launched. The conference venue will be the university campus in the centre of town. The necessary information to start the registration process will be provided in the autumn.
- The proposal to have the 2004 conference in Reykjavik, Iceland was explained by V. Arnason. The conference will be associated with the closing meeting of the EU funded project ELSAGEN. The theme of the conference will be: Genetics and health care. The conference will take place in the third week of August (25-28 August 2003). It was pointed out to prevent overlap with the IAB conference in Melbourne. The proposal was unanimously accepted by the GA.
- Future plans. This year no proposal has been received for a joint conference with EACME (European Association of Centers of Medical Ethics). The secretary will explore the possibilities to develop the proposal for a conference in collaboration with the Board of EACME. A possibility is to have a conference in Leuven, Belgium.

9. Proposal for Bylaws
The President explained how the Executive Committee in January in an extraordinary meetings agreed on the proposal initially drafted by F. Heubel. The proposal is now on the agenda. Although the members have been invited to submit written commentaries, no submissions have been received. In the GA F. Heubel distributed two amendments. The first amendment proposed to delete in section 3, paragraph 3 the words "but if there is only one candidate he/she is elected without ballot". The EC having reflected on this amendment prior to the meeting, however, proposed a different wording, because acceptance of the amendment would imply that voting is always necessary in case there is only one candidate. The EC proposal is to rephrase the sentence: "But if there is only one candidate he/she can be elected without ballot, if the GA unanimously agrees". This proposal is accepted.
Heubel's second amendment concerns section 1, paragraph 2. He proposes to insert: "Nominations during the meeting need more than half of the votes of the members present". This suggestion was also discussed during the Link ping meeting but rejected since it is against the Statutes. It should be clear at the start of the GA which candidates are nominated. The non-binding proposal of the EC can always be breached, according to the Statutes, by another proposal backed by 10% of the membership. Heubel explains that he feels this deprives the GA from the right to nominate. In the subsequent discussion, Heubel replaced his amendment with the proposal to seek legal advice whether the articles of association indeed exclude nominations being made during the GA. This proposal was not accepted by the General Assembly (5 votes pro, 11 votes against). The President concludes that with the above amendment of section 3.3. the Bylaw has been accepted by the membership, thanking F. Heubel for his efforts.

10. Composition of the EC
According to the Statutes, the GA has the right to extend the number of seats in the Executive Committee. The proposal to maintain the present number of 9 seats has been accepted.

11. Journal Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy
The secretary explained that in 2001 a smaller of number of manuscripts has been accepted for publication. Receipt of issues should now be regular since distribution is going through Kluwer (in March, August, December).

12. A.O.B.
- ESPMH will sponsor the forthcoming conference `Clinical Ethics Consultation: First International Assessment Conference' in Cleveland, April 4-6, 2003. Sponsorship does not include any costs, but serves primarily the objective of inviting European participation.
- Since bioethicist are worried that the efforts of the European Commission to fund ethics research will be diminishing, some initiatives will be taken to re-emphasize the need for concerted actions in ethics. The 6th Framework Programme so far primarily focuses on biotechnology and information technologies. The secretary will circulate a draft letter to the European Commission, inviting the support of as many scholars in bioethics as possible. - Dr. Dimiolatis from Ioannina, Greece asked the floor to introduce dr. Galanakis as a potential new member of the EC. He also proposed to have future conference in Greece.