Human cloning: Eastern Mediterranean Region perspective

Recent advances in genomics and biotechnology have ushered in a new era in health development. Therapeutic cloning possesses enormous potential for revolutionizing medical and therapeutic techniques. Cloning technology, however, is perceived as having the potential for reproductive cloning, which raises serious ethical and moral concerns. It is important that the Islamic countries come to a consensus on this vital issue. Developing science and technology for better health is a religious and moral obligation. There is an urgent need for Muslim scholars to discuss the issue of stem cell research and cloning rationally; such dialogue will not only consider the scientific merits but also the moral, ethical and legal implications.

Meeting the growing demands of genetic research

The promise of personalized medicine and the quest for a greater understanding of the genetic basis of disease has transformed the research enterprise. The Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., recently predicted “that comprehensive, genomics- based health care will become the norm, with individualized preventive medicine and early detection of illnesses.” This excitement about the potential scientific and clinical advances that may come from genomics- based research has led several NIH institutions to launch initiatives for genome-wide association studies (GWAS), calling on researchers and institutions to utilize the new DNA analysis technologies to study the genetic variation between individuals with a particular illness and healthy controls.

Emerging concepts in nutrigenomics: a preview of what is to come

This article provides an overview of the fundamental principles of genetics and emerging concepts related to the ways in which nutrients and bioactive food components may interact with the genome and subsequently affect human health. This exciting area of research is likely to have far-reaching implications for the assessment and treatment of critically and chronically ill individuals that will affect nutrition standards of care and practice. A brief overview of some of the ethical, legal, and social implications of genomic research and genome-based health care and a list of genetics resources also are provided.

Ethical and legal aspects of applied genomic technologies: practical solutions

Many ethical and legal issues surround genomic technologies, some of which are present for other kinds of medical data, but some of which are specific to genomic data. Specifically the global nature of genomic data and the life-long implications of genetic defects on the health of the individual subject produce challenges in the ethical and legal handling of this data. In general, data derived from transcriptome analysis, which studies gene expression, as well as proteomics and metabolomics, carry less ethically-charged information than measures of the germ line genome. However, theoretical issues that have been raised related to withholding therapy based on a specific genotype which could also apply to a specific expression profile. Potential solutions for these challenges are discussed, such as maintaining a connection with research participants through a trusted third party, using electronic means to manage that contact and reconsent subjects. A flexible, secure information technology infrastructure is proposed to manage and search consent forms, provide the ability to collect additional data and consent while maintaining participant confidentiality.

Of biotechnology and man

Lessons learned from the arena of other genetic 'resources' (such as plants and animals) together with the past decade of experience in human genetic research requires a rethinking of policy approaches. Whether at the level of whole populations, the family or the individual, the determination of rights and responsibilities is necessarily situated in the context of relationships. From an appreciation of these relationships emerge ethical principles that reflect the complexity of both the human person and new technologies. The elaboration of principles such as individuality, mutuality, reciprocity, solidarity, equity, citizenry and universality foster the possibility that traditional human rights and bioethic principles can be interpreted in a new way so as to promote and protect human well-being.

Regulating genomics in the 21st century: from logos to pathos?

There is currently an important change in the governance of genomics. In the past, much of the regulatory discussion about genomics has focused on issues of risk. Today, a new discussion is evolving that emphasizes the uncertainties involved in the development and diffusion of genomics into society. The increasing importance of emotional language and the focus on trust in the discussion about genomics reflects the attempt to substitute for the shortcomings of logos with ethos and pathos.

For an ethics of promising, or: a few kind words about James Watson

This essay questions some of the limits that both science studies and bioethics have assumed in their engagements with technoscience, and genomics in particular. It argues that these disciplines have privileged an "ethics of suspicion" regarding technoscience, and argues that this is ill-suited to promissory sciences such as genomics. The essay begins to develop elements of an "ethics of friendship" toward genomics, using examples from toxicogenomics and behavioral genetics, to suggest what an ethics of promising might involve.

Practical and ethical issues with genetic screening

Clinical hematologists are faced with a growing list of new genetic-based tools for identifying a patient's risk of disease. While many of the disease-specific tests are readily available, validation studies are required. Furthermore, genetic-based tests are being pushed to their technical limits, such as testing a single cell prior to embryo selection and transfer for couples at risk of genetic disease. As a result, misdiagnosis or misinterpretation of the data may result. As new genetic testing opportunities proliferate, the hematologist needs to be aware of the medical and legal issues surrounding their use. Furthermore, the hematologist needs to consider the psychological, ethical and social implications of this new field of genomic-based medicine.

Toxic ethics: environmental genomics and the health of populations

Dealing primarily with implications rather than foundations, and focusing downstream at the expense of upstream prevention, mainstream bioethics is at a toxic watershed. Through an extended analysis of the Environmental Genome Project (EGP), we offer new tools from the philosophy of science and from critical epidemiology to help bioethics to move ahead. Our aim in this paper is not to resolve the moral and conceptual problems we reveal, but rather to outline ways to prevent such problems from arising in future research.

Costs and benefits of genomics patents

Genomics patents are controversial on religious, ethical, legal, and economic grounds. An economic approach is desirable for valuing the patent system generally, and genomics patents in particular, in terms of its stated constitutional objective, which is to 'promote progress'. Several types of criticisms and warnings have been issued regarding the suitability of genomics inventions for patent protection; here these are evaluated in the context of more general concerns about the efficacy of the patent system. As with the patent system more generally, it is difficult to specify an alternative mechanism for producing inventions that has attributes (such as decentralized resource allocation, speed of therapeutic discovery, and financing by beneficiaries) that are predictable enough to serve as a benchmark against which to judge the current regime, which is dominated by genomics patents. The current patent regime can be expected to produce commercializable therapies reasonably reliably, while many proposed alternatives hearken back to a regime that did not produce commercializable therapies with as great speed or variety. Therefore, the onus appears to lie on the critics to create a model with the desirable properties of the patent system, but with fewer of its acknowledged weaknesses, such as 'monopoly' pricing and 'patent thickets'.

[Social perceptions on genomics in four Latin American countries. Ethical-legal implications]

The authors analyze under an ethical and legal perspective the consequences and anxieties generated by the human genome project in the population of four Latin American countries: Argentine, Chile, México and Perú, through bibliographical analysis and interviews done to biomedical researches, lawyers and legislators, students and lay civilians.

Integrating ethics and science in the International HapMap Project

Genomics resources that use samples from identified populations raise scientific, social and ethical issues that are, in many ways, inextricably linked. Scientific decisions about which populations to sample to produce the HapMap, an international genetic variation resource, have raised questions about the relationships between the social identities used to recruit participants and the biological findings of studies that will use the HapMap. The sometimes problematic implications of those complex relationships have led to questions about how to conduct genetic variation research that uses identified populations in an ethical way, including how to involve members of a population in evaluating the risks and benefits posed for everyone who shares that identity. The ways in which these issues are linked is increasingly drawing the scientific and ethical spheres of genomics research closer together.

New genetics, new ethics? Globalisation and its discontents

The paper discusses the rapid and significant development of new genetic technologies (in health, food and agriculture) in the theoretical context of the globalisation debate. We show how the studies on the ethical, legal and social implications of biotechnological innovation have themselves emerged as an important factor in the technological innovation and product development process. Ethical considerations are becoming integral to attempts to understand techno-scientific developments in late modernity. However, ethical studies have so far been more focused on the medical rather than the overall commercial application of genomics. Their relevance to this wider context of the globalised commodification of new genetics needs to be explored. Of special significance is the introduction of ethical considerations into the debates on globalised risk, which we will explore in relation to increasing disparities between the global North and South.

Primer on medical genomics. Part XIII: Ethical and regulatory issues

Ethics in the new genomics era has become an increasingly complex subject that often arouses passion and confusion. Although 50 years have elapsed since the elucidation of the DNA molecule, the recent near-complete sequencing of the human genome has sharply accelerated the incorporation of genetics into the medical mainstream. Along with these scientific advances, however, have surfaced challenges, liabilities, and issues regarding the processing and management of genetic information as they relate to core ethical principles such as respect for autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice. Institutions and state and federal governments have initiated systematic and preemptive measures in education, resource development, and protective legislation to address these cardinal ethical issues. Genetic research is also being scrutinized carefully by institutional review boards, an activity that should not be perceived as being adversarial but rather as a protective shield for investigators and research participants alike. Ultimately, it is hoped that genomics medicine will diminish rather than enhance existing sex-, race-, and socioeconomic class-based inequities in health care access and delivery. This article describes some but not all aspects of the ethical, legal, and social implications of genomics in clinical practice.