Bioethics of Gene Diagnosis and Gene Therapy

Abstract

Ethics committees were established in all medical universities and colleges in Japan in the late 1980s. New medical methods, both in basic research as well as in clinical practice, required ethical consideration. A guideline for bioethics in research on the human genome and gene analyses was laid out by the government in 2001. The guideline is contradictory in certain principles with international guidelines such as those established by WHO. The difference might be caused by lack of human genetics in medical education in Japan. Genetic counseling, which is emphasized in the government guideline, is not practiced, mainly due to a lack of well-trained genetic counselors. An urgent program to promote the education of human genetics in medical schools as well as in general education is needed. Gene therapy should be limited to the cure of diseases, not for the "improvement" of non-disease characteristics. Diversity in human genes should be kept intact, as human beings are but one of the nature's species.