Informed Consent
One of the most important tenets of the HGDP debate has been the social and ethical implications for indigenous populations, specifically the methods and ethics of informed consent. Some questions include: How would consent be obtained? Would individuals or groups fully understand the project's intentions, particularly with regards to language barriers and differing cultural views? What is 'informed' in a cross-cultural context? Who would be authorized to actually give consent? How would individuals know what happened to their DNA? For how long would their information be kept in DNA databases? These questions are specifically addressed by the HGDP's "Model Ethical Protocol for Collecting DNA Samples".
Read more about this topic: Human Genome Diversity Project
Famous quotes containing the words informed and/or consent:
“Information about child development enhances parents’ capacity to respond appropriately to their children. Informed parents are better equipped to problem-solve, more confident of their decisions, and more likely to respond sensitively to their children’s developmental needs.”
—L. P. Wandersman (20th century)
“Friendship is the perfection of love, and superior to love; it is love purified, exalted, proved by experience and a consent of minds. Love, Madam, may, and love does, often stop short of friendship.”
—Samuel Richardson (1689–1761)