Genome Justice: Genetics and Group Rights
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Vol. 34, p. 352, 2007
4 Pages Posted: 19 Jun 2011
Date Written: 2007
Abstract
An introduction to the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethic’s volume based on the 2004 conference titled “Bioethics, Genetics and Group Rights,” held at Arizona State University and sponsored by the Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics. The introduction gives an overview of the conference topic and the author’s papers.
The accelerated rate of innovation within biotechnology and increasing importance of human genetic information has triggered complex and compelling issues for researchers, lawyers, health professionals, and bioethicists. Although biotechnology can and does hold great capacity for improvements in individual health care, genomic research on populations has increasingly inspired controversy because of the implications of such research for particular groups.
The various articles within this symposium develop an understanding of the key issues that surround competing claims for ownership of human genetic materials and technological innovations derived from these materials. The contributors to this symposium maintain a commitment to identifying current scientific issues and also identifying standards for developing transformative ethical and legal frameworks to consider these issues. This symposium demonstrates that the standard frameworks for analysis within contemporary bioethics and law must be adapted to better address the emerging cultural, social, and political conflicts over the use of human genetic material. Together, the articles in this symposium provide a rich theoretical context within which to formulate new constructs of law and ethics that can inform our domestic policies in the area of genomics research.
Keywords: Bioethics, Group Rights, Genomic Research, Biotechnology, Genetics
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