(CH)Comment: Ethics needed in medical research

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http://www1.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-10/31/content_277136.htm

 

Comment: Ethics needed in medical research

( 2003-10-31 07:35) (China Daily)

 

The general public wouldn't have paid much attention

to the revised Ministry of Public Health regulations

on assisted reproductive research and human sperm

banks, were it not for the media hype on the

controversial experiments in South China's Guangzhou

involving the technique of human egg nucleus transfer.

 

 

The three new administrative regulations, announced by

the Ministry of Public Health on July 10, went into

effect on October 1. They defined, among other items,

ethical principles in relation to the use of assisted

reproductive technology and human sperm bank

management.

 

Following the Universal Declaration of the Human

Genome and Human Rights, adopted unanimously by the

general conference of the United Nations Educational,

Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1997,

the new regulation states that " human cloning is

forbidden.''

 

The regulation on the ethical principles on assisted

reproductive technology specifically stipulates that

" no medical workers should use the techniques of human

egg cell nucleus and human egg nucleus transfers for

infertility treatment before the problem of safety is

resolved.''

 

However, the new regulations had received little media

attention. Until the mid-October, when the results of

the Sino-US co-operative research project involving

the use of human egg nucleus transfer at the Medical

College of Dr Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou were

presented at a national reproductive research

conference in the United States.

 

Medical professionals, followed by the general public,

began to question the ethical and medical implications

of the experiments.

 

However, the incident and subsequent remarks from some

researchers involved should serve as admonitions. The

public must remain vigilant against such medical

malpractice and call for effective legislation, public

caution and enhanced social responsibility on the part

of scientists.

 

Similar experiments in the name of science and

international co-operation must be better supervised

and managed, as some of these moves may actually harm

the well-being of the society, the environment, the

ecology and the mankind.

 

In their interviews with the local media, the

researchers involved seemed anything but repentant.

They claimed they had good intentions to help

infertile women to have children of their own. They

emphasized that the experiment they carried out should

in no way be linked to human cloning, despite the fact

that the technique seems to be perilously close.

 

They even suggested that they'd only moved a little

" faster,'' by doing the experiments in China that have

already been banned in many developed countries such

as the United States. And they claimed only boldness

and even a spirit of adventure could lead to further

scientific discoveries and make our lives even better.

 

 

Their responses to the media and medical criticism are

a cause for concern. They seem to have forsaken their

cardinal responsibility as scientists who should place

the general good of society above their mere research

interests. Traditional medical treatment is helping

most people with infertility problems.

 

By international standards, any clinical medical

experiments must be based on the following three

criteria. The procedure is assured of safety to human

beings, proven viable in animal research and

thoroughly considered for all of its social and

ethical implications.

 

Despite the researchers' argument, the now banned

research project satisfied none of the above criteria.

For one thing, they cannot explain how much the

microstructures of the human eggs are disrupted during

the extraction and transfer of the egg nucleus. The

hazards that nuclear transfer could pose to children

who may be born as a result remain unknown.

 

Even though the researchers claim they've done

experiments on mice, experiments on lab animals alone

cannot justify going straight into actual human

experiments.

 

True enough, as a result of boldness and adventure,

sciences have made much headway over the past two

centuries. Human beings have been able to guard

against many diseases and live longer. We've seen the

land on earth altered almost beyond recognition from

200 years ago.

 

But we must acknowledge that scientific advances have

also been accompanied by environmental degradation,

reductions in biodiversity, global warming and new

diseases. We will also encounter unforeseeable

complications that now challenge the continuing

well-being of human society and the earth.

 

We must be aware that some scientists from developed

countries make use of the ignorance and eagerness of

their colleagues in the developing countries to carry

out experiments banned in their own nations.

 

That's why many conscientious scientists call for

exercising caution. Research does not always produce a

panacea for all our physical and environmental

problems.

 

That's why UNESCO member countries unanimously pledged

in Universal Declaration of the Human Genome that

" treatment or diagnosis affecting an individual's

genome shall be undertaken only after rigorous and

prior assessment of the potential risks and benefits

pertaining thereto and in accordance with any other

requirement of national law.''

 

And the declaration also states " assessment of the

risks and benefits pertaining to research on the human

genome to be carried out and abuse to be prevented''

in the framework of international co-operation with

developing countries.

 

In fact, although the 2001 Ministry of Public Health

regulations did not specifically ban the human egg

nucleus transfer, the ministry did require the

researchers to seek extensive consultations and

consent from ethical boards and the ministry.

 

But the researchers involved in the project have

undertaken none of the consultations, even with the

knowledge that the same procedure was already banned

in the United States.

 

However complete the new ministry regulations are,

there are ways to get around them.

 

So the public, the scientific institutions and the

legal departments must team up to work out specific

ways to enforce the new regulations. They should also

make the researchers socially and ethically

accountable for their conduct.

 

The scientific and medical world should dishonour

those who disregard the well-being of the humanity and

who forsake their social and ethical obligations.

 

We human beings are enjoying what we have achieved,

but are also suffering from the mistakes we've made.

 

We should not leave our posterity an environmentally,

ecologically and socially degenerated earth because of

the errors we've made in the name of science.

 

 

 

 

 

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