Cloning and deliberation: Korean consensus conference.
This article addresses the 2nd Korean consensus conference on cloning that was held by the Korean National commission for UNESCO in 1999. It notes that the citizens participated directly and handled the important social agenda through deliberative process. The consensus conference is another democratic form derived from preference aggregative democracy in the sense that it basically depends on public judgment of the citizens. Compared to other models (elitist or preference aggregative), it has some advantages: 1. It can solve the problem of political legitimacy. 2. It can check the partiality of expert groups in biotechnology and ethics. 3. It enables us to make informed, responsible decisions. 4. It results in education of citizens' preference. However, we need to expand the deliberative model. First, we need institutional efforts on behalf of future generations because cloning relates to them. Second, we should not include the value of life which cannot be expressed in the form of argument or discourse.
Kim
Myung-Sik
MS
Dongsung Apt 7-1203, Shinnae-dong, Jungrang-Gu, Seoul, 131-781 Korea. kimmungsik@hotmail.com; science@pumyang.co.kr
D026683:Advisory Committees; D000818:Animals; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D019976:Cloning, Organism / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D003256:Community Participation; D003245:Consensus Statements as Topic; D003709:Democracy; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea; D017146:Models, Organizational; D011050:Policy Making