Volume 5, Issue 2

Introduction It didn't take the decision of the Islamic states at the 59th session of the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2004 to follow Iran's proposal to adjourn the consideration of the “International convention on cloning” to the 60th General Assembly to make clear that Islamic states have their own approach to bioethical questions – an Islamic approach. That became obvious when the “Cairo declaration on human rights in Islam” was adopted in 1990. This is also underlined by the “First regional meeting of national bioethics committees” in Cairo in 2007. As Islamic states established national bioethics committees for the purpose of communicating bioethical issues and ethical perspectives, these committees are the main liaison agencies for bioethical issues on the international level. This paper discusses Islamic states' national bioethics committees and their work. It poses the question how and where Islamic values are reflected.

The Chinese legal protection and its development in genetic resources are subject to this paper. Since China is one of the countries with rich genetic resources, it is important to apply current legal systems and enact laws or regulations for the protection of intellectual property right in the field of genetic resources. This paper describes the present situation of the Chinese law system including laws and regulations issued by the State Council, Government Office and local governments on protection of intellectual property right in genetic resources and other suggestions being made. At the same time, this paper also discusses the trend of relevant laws and regulations of protection on Chinese genetic resources.

INTRODUCTION The Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid (DNA) analysis of body substances is a powerful technology that makes it possible to determine whether the source of origin of one body substance is identical to that of another, and further to establish the biological relationship, if any, between two individuals, living or dead without any doubt. With the objective to enhance protection of people in the society and administration of justice, analysis of DNA found at the scene of crime, of the victim or offender has been used to establish identity. The DNA analysis offers sensitive information which, if, misused can cause harm to person or society. There is, thus, need to regulate the use of DNA Profiles through an Act passed by the Parliament only for Lawful purposes of establishing identity in a criminal or civil proceeding and for other specified purposes. In order to achieve this objective, it will be essential to establish standards for laboratories, staff qualifications, training, proficiency testing, collection of body substances, custody trail from collection to reporting and a Data Bank with policies of use and access to information therein, its retention and deletion. DNA Data Bank Manager will supervise, execute and maintain this system and a DNA Profiling Board of eminent scientists, administrators and Law enforcement officers will administer and carry out other functions assigned to it under this Act. The proposed Legislation, therefore, be enacted keeping the above objectives in view.

India's pharma and biotech industry has recognised that they cannot survive as global players without significant R&D capabilities. In the pharma industry this has resulted in an increase in R&D spending as a percentage of sales from an average of 2% to around 10% over the last 5 years. Since 1995, total pharma industry R&D spending has grown from around USD 30 million to more than USD 495.2 million in 2005 (Fig. 1). The vast majority of the national pharma industry's R&D expenditures on new drug discovery and development is conducted by a limited number of companies, e.g. Dr. Reddy's (2006: 12% of annual sales) and Ranbaxy (2006: around 7%). The biotech sector in India is among the fastest growing knowledge based sectors, growing from USD 800 million in 2003 to USD 1.45 billion during 2005, and reaching USD 2 billion in 2006. The biotech industry has invested around 25% of its revenues over the last few years with a high proportion of the investments going into the setting up of infrastructure, followed by R&D.

According to the centre for disease control (CDC) malignant neoplasms are the second most common cause of death in the US in 2004 (1). One of the major problems is that most of the cancers are diagnosed in an advanced stage, which prohibits curative treatment. In order to circumvent these problems, we need to develop strategies that allow identification of risk patients and tumors at an early stage. In addition, it is necessary to identify prognostic and predictive biomarkers that guide patient treatment at different stages of the disease.

On October 4 and 5 2007, experts from the United States, the Netherlands, and Germany met at the University of Delft to hold a workshop on “The Ethics of Neuroimaging”. According to the organizer, Aldus Lokhorst, this was the first Dutch event on “neuroethics”, to use the new term that has become familiar since the early 2000s. The agenda comprised several issues including the state of the art of neuroimaging, legal and ethical issues related to that research as well as philosophical questions concerning the prospects and limitations of investigating the human brain. Even though the participants came from various disciplines, including philosophy, law, and psychology, it was surprising that no Dutch neuroscientist participated in the workshop. Because the organizers had tried persistently to get these researchers involved, they inferred that at the current stage their empirical colleagues' interest in ethical, legal and social aspects of the investigation of the brain must be low. Considering that the recent boom of neuroethics in the United States was strongly sustained by neuroscientists, the Dutch researchers' apparent lack of interest is surprising.