Populations and Genetics: Legal and Socio-Ethical Perspectives

Genetic research and testing is not limited to individuals and their families. Increasingly, there is focus on communities and even whole populations. This raises legal and socio-ethical and issues that have not been addressed. In this age of international biobanking involving populations, are current legal and ethical approaches sufficient? This book of selected papers covers population research and banking as well as accompanying confidentiality, and governance concerns. Possible commercialization, patents, benefit sharing, discrimination, and the role of patient organizations and of developing countries are also discussed. New perspectives and models are provided. The book concludes with a Statement of Principles on the Ethical Conduct of Human Genetic Research Involving Populations. Policymakers, academics, legislators and researchers will find this book to be current and controversial. The human genome may be mapped but the legal and socio-ethical debate is far from over.