[Ethical principles to investigate the human genome].
The scientific community is becoming aware that mankind has started to directly manipulate the mechanisms that transmit life and guide our species evolution. These facts are overflowing the traditional concepts about humanism and medical ethics, with an unpredictable scope. Presently we are conscious that there is an universal and biological order that rules life in our planet. At the molecular level there is an hereditary order and scientists have established the "central dogmas" of molecular biology and "genetic creed" of Mendelian theory in population genetics. The biotechnological revolution of the last decades is dismantling the normal processes of biological balance through the early detection and healing of defects, the manipulation of reproduction and the rupture of species boundaries with interspecies hybridization. All these issues open debates about the ethical limits of scientific research freedom. As a consequence, the dictation of genetic ethical codes has been proposed and statements that restrain genic therapy methods, genetic heritage manipulation and the patent right for DNA sequences, have been approved. The Valencia Statement (1990) on ethics about human genome tries to conciliate and establish a minimal consensus among scientists. However it seems that we are tearing down the frontiers that keep the sanctuary of biological order closed and damaging the twentieth century science dogmas.
Cruz-Coke
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Servicio de Genética Médica, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile, Hospital José Joaquín Aguirre, Santiago de Chile.
D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005826:Genetics, Medical / Q000592:standards; D015894:Genome, Human; D006805:Human Experimentation; D006801:Humans
Principios éticos para investigar el genoma humano.