Editorial: The need for ethics

- Darryl Macer.
Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics 10 (2000), 105.

As predicted in the last editorial, the complete draft human genome sequence has been announced in June, and we saw a number of repeated calls for looking into the ethical, legal and social issues that arise from new technology. We hope that studies continue and diversify to allow looking at the broad range of issues and perspectives that can be found, to portray diversity, not just the standard line that has been emerging from many ELSI studies to date. Cross-cultural debate is essential to enable interactive bioethics to flourish, and from 25-27 October (and the following week) I hope to welcome many bioethicists to Japan to continue the dialogue and reflection.

In June I was a guest of Prof. SC Lee in Taiwan at a cross-cultural bioethics conference, which featured a number of Chinese scholars. There is expected to be another meeting in Taiwan next year and perhaps in other places in Asia, so we hope that the spirit of roundtable and cross-cultural dialogue can flourish in different parts of the globe. This theme is also explored by Evanoff in the discussion of third cultures, and we could expect further cultural comparisons in the future.

In this issue of EJAIB we see the results of attitude surveys on Japanese public and scientists which allow comparison over the decade of the 1990s. It reveals the cultures of science supporters and technophobes, and a moderate middle that is troubled by recent debates on GM food. In early July one Working Group of the Codex Alimentarius taskforce on Novel Foods produced from Biotechnology had its meeting in Japan, with active discussion. There are also two papers and two commentaries on the issue of autonomy in medical ethics.

In May, several of your editors met in Paris in the IUBS Bioethics Program at the BioEd 2000 conference, which emphasized the need for ethics in biology education. One project we are working on is the development of a Dictionary of Bioethics for Biologists, which may be ready by the end of the year. More news later, and hope to receive more news from readers to share.

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