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Advances in genomics have implications for how disability is viewed by geneticists and the public alike. Better communication is needed so that the concerns of people with disabilities are taken into account — in terms of clinical applications and the wider societal context.
Despite its potential benefits, opposition to transgenic crops remains strong in influential European countries. This article explores the basis for this opposition and looks at its implications for applying transgenic technology in poorer nations, where it is needed the most.
The authors explore large-scale population genotyping projects in Mexico, India and Thailand to demonstrate that developing countries can harness human genetic variation to benefit their populations — by adopting these resources to improve public health and create knowledge-based economies.
The unprecedented amount of data in biomedical sciences is putting the well-known ethical issues such as privacy, confidentiality and consent for research under pressure. These authors propose that an open-consent framework, as implemented in the Personal Genome Project, might help avoid the constraints that are inherent in the current concepts of genetic privacy.
The application of gene therapy to treat human disorders has made many advances in recent years, although many ethical challenges associated with this type of intervention remain unresolved. This Perspective describes the special challenges posed by research in this field.
As personal genome research advances, investigators and international research bodies must ensure ethical research conduct. The authors discuss three major ethical implications of personal genomics that relate to the participants, their next-of-kin and the data.