Judges Get Crash Course in Sciences

By Mike Baker (AP) From Casper Star-Tribune:

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - As advanced science plays a larger role in courtrooms across the country, judges who earned degrees in English or the humanities face the daunting task of making informed decisions about some very technical disputes. That's why judges from across the Southeast gathered Friday for a crash course with medical and genetics experts at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

About 60 judges are attending the conference, which is exploring emerging and often contested areas of science.

Unlike other judicial seminars, this three-day intensive training session _ dubbed The Southeast Regional Science and Technology Boot Camp _ aims to prepare judges for some of the most politically charged issues of the day: gene therapy, genetic discrimination, genetically modified foods, human cloning and stem cell research....

The North Carolina conference, funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, also looks ahead to medical disputes _ such as stem cell research _ that are expected to be fought over soon in the courtroom.

George Annas, a bioethics and legal expert who was not involved in the conference, praised judges for seeking out a deeper knowledge of the issues. He said unbiased education can help separate the fact from the hype.

'Good law begins with good facts,' said Annas, chair of the department of law, bioethics and human rights at Boston University. 'It's critical that judges get the science right.'