Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
drew parallels to effective attacks on Shell for environmental policies in
the Niger Delta and on Nestle for promoting infant formula to poor
women.
55
Oxfam also suggested ways in which transnational drug com-
panies could adopt a more socially responsible stance, similar to the
“benefit-sharing” proposals that have elsewhere been recommended as
part of a solution to distributive justice in genetics research.
56
If countries like India, Brazil, Thailand, and South Africa are now
banding together against big biotech companies with the help of well-
placed NGO's, they can look to precedents already set by China in
restricting access to desirable indigenous genetics research populations,
following several scandals in the 1990s. For over a decade, U.S., French,
and German research institutes have collaborated with Chinese organi-
zations to collect genetic samples from isolated ethnic populations in
China. The research was intended to help develop testing and genetics-
based treatments for a number of disorders, including obesity, asthma,
and cancer. Human subjects violations were reported to have occurred
in a number of cases, including incomplete information about the risks
and benefits, local political pressure to participate in studies, and reneg-
ing on promises of medical care to research subjects. Moreover, nation-
alist sentiment in China was stirred by the fact that foreign researchers
were removing genetic samples for the benefit of Western research proj-
ects likely to result in sizable profits. In 1998, China's State Council
issued a law requiring stricter approval of foreign-funded genetic
research, signed consent from subjects, and tighter controls on sending
genetic information abroad. Recently, Health Ministry bioethics adviser
Qiu Renzong urged China to be more vigilant in protecting intellectual
property rights to its DNA, and has rallied support from several national
organizations, including China's Academy of Sciences and the Health
Ministry.
57
William Greider, a critic of global capitalism whose analysis converges
in interesting ways with that of Niebuhr, tenders the hope that the pull
of self-interest and the push of market and political pressures might work
together to bring off a renewed sense of the common good among all of
society's stakeholders, a general understanding that “we are all in this
together.” He contends that
with a little imagination, one may glimpse the possibility that a new version
of the “virtuous circle” might emerge, a mutuality of interests in which the
