Editorial: Our Genome

Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics 10 (2000), 69.

This May issue will see several milestones in human technology reached. As reported in the HGP and Patenting news sections, the sequencing of the first draft of the human genome has finished in the Celera project and the computing to assemble the pieces is expected to be finished before the next issue of EJAIB. The public project, as announced at the Human Gene Mapping 2000 conference in Vancouver is almost finished, and will be finished before the next issue. The www site on the human genome sequence allows all to use the data as it comes.

The use of genetic information in health care will be expanded with the completion of the project, and also with the DNA sequencing capacity that now exists in the world. New genomes will be sequenced even faster, and we can expect more papers introduced in the news section of every issue to include genome sequences. The question of benefit sharing is raised, in the HUGO Ethics Committee statement, which makes a profound recommendation to ask companies to give 1-3% of net profit to humanitarian purposes in exchange for using genetic data from our genome. Also please see the new book from Eubios.

Another milestone that is expected on 11 May, is the second country in the world to reach one billion in population, India. The population of the world is related to many of the environmental pressures we face. Two papers in this issue look at the oceans. One at fisheries and the other at the growing burden of chlorine that threatens to quietly but quickly poison the ocean.

The question of love is raised, and humanity. The rights of children are reformulated again in the Monaco Statement, let us hope that children will be better protected than many alive today. The paper by Seewald examines the long running issue in Japan of brain death and organ transplants. The study of culture continues to be important despite the trends towards the universal. We may share the same genome, but cultures have diverged.

Anyone who wishes to join meetings and a seminar on bioethics education in the first week of August in New Zealand is welcome. There will be bioethics network teachers from Japan and New Zealand teachers. If people from other countries wish to join they are most welcome (no funds are available to support persons). A new book in Japanese from the High School teachers network has been published.

Hope to see you in Tsukuba, Tokyo and Fukui (see p.103),

- Darryl Macer

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