Dialogue

Development (2006) 49, 73–77. doi:10.1057/palgrave.development.1100314

Colonialism and the Research Endeavour: Reflections on the Human Genome Diversity Project

Beth Elpern Burrows

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Abstract

The activities that facilitate new technologies are burdened by persistent ethical dilemmas, including the problem of how to access resources of interest and engage others in the research endeavour without coopting their rights or harming them or their communities. Finding little apparent improvement in applied research ethics since the days of the Human Genome Diversity Project, Beth Elpern Burrows offers her long-standing analysis of the problems.

Keywords:

biopiracy, ethics, prior informed consent, complementarity, transparency, patent