Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
the democratic process and public institutions are vulnerable to manipulation
because the culture of both politics and public institutions is characterized by nep-
otism: favours to family, friends and political allies often outweigh standard proce-
dures, regulations and even the law. This vulnerability is often blamed on the small
size of the population, only about 317,000 (Wade
2009
: particularly 25-26;
Vaiman et al.
2010
: 370; Bergmann
2010
). Fourth, there was a significant power
imbalance between the corporations (deCODE and Roche) on the one hand and
the population on the other.
This power imbalance was based on four key advantages of the corporations:
funds, political power, scientific authority and economic rationality. Regarding
funds, deCODE had the financial means to stage an advertising and public rela-
tions campaign to win over the population. For example, the company ran full-
page advertisements in the main Icelandic newspapers and toured Iceland with
town-hall style meetings to sell the idea of the Health Sector Database to the
public. As for political power, deCODE had very close ties to the conservative
Independence Party, which was in power in Iceland at the time. In February
1998, when deCODE and Roche signed their contract, David Oddsson, then
Iceland's prime minister, passed the pen between the representatives of the two
companies. Later that year, Oddson's centre-right coalition in parliament passed
the Health Sector Database Bill as law. The initial version of the Bill was drafted
by deCODE and faxed to the Ministry of Health on 14 July 1997. Concerning
scientific authority, deCODE presented the Health Sector Database plans as a
major scientific undertaking which was very likely to result in major contribu-
tions to scientific and medical progress, and downplayed their commercial
aspects. Although the opposition to the project was led by medical doctors and
scientists, who had some scientific authority of their own, they were discredited
as being merely envious rivals of deCODE's founder, Kári Stefánsson. Finally,
the company and its supporters appealed to economic rationality, when deCODE
promised to create jobs in technology, science and medicine, and bring to
Iceland investment capital and research funding. In his speech during the signing
of the deCODE-Roche contract, Prime Minister David Oddsson compared the
economic benefits of deCODE's cooperation with Roche both to a good fishing
season and to an aluminum smelter, the twin cores of Iceland's manufacturing
and export.
11
These vulnerabilities made it easier for the corporations to gain access to
the population in an attempt to use it for commercial gain by turning it into a
genetics laboratory, with the acceptance of the majority of the population and
its political representatives. Although the project to establish the Health Sector
Database eventually failed, this was not because of resistance within the popu-
lation, let alone any concerns about exploitation. A combination of scientific
11
For a detailed discussion, see Jóhannesson (
1999
).
