EU and China form new alliance on bioethics
European and Chinese bioethicists and life scientists have set up an expert group to promote ethical behaviour in biomedical research in both regions. The group brings together 10 leading bioethicists and biomedical researchers, who will develop a series of guidelines for the ethical governance of collaborative research between Europe and China. The expert committee is part of the EU-funded BIONET project, a network of 21 European and Chinese scientists who collaborate on the ethical governance of research in the life sciences and biomedicine. The group will hold a series of workshops and conferences over the next three years to discuss the ethical issues raised in research fields in which the EU and China cooperate, as well as in wider biomedical research. 'European countries have a longer history of bioethical governance, and their experience could be beneficial to China through the collaboration project,' said Christoph Rehmann-Sutter, the Chairman of the expert group and a Professor of bioethics at the University of Basel, Switzerland. The issues to be discussed will include the challenges and approaches to the ethical governance of advanced biological and biomedical research in China, the promotion of comparative research on ethical governance in China and the EU, and methods to improve the public's understanding of key bioethical issues. The group intends to cover the ethical aspects of sensitive topics such as reproductive medicine, genomics, biobanking and stem cell research. By the end of the project in 2009, the expert group will deliver a series of policy recommendations for the promotion of ethical governance in biomedical research in the EU and China. 'I believe BIONET will help standardise [China's bioethics] practice so that we can protect the interests of the common people,' said Lu Guangxiu, a member of the expert group and a professor of bioethics at the Institute of Human Reproduction and Stem Cell Engineering in China's Hunan Province. Ole Döring, a bioethics expert at the Institute of Asian Affairs in Hamburg, Germany, said that the BIONET partnership will be of mutual benefit for China and Europe. 'In China, the implementation of bioethical rules is often very diversified and complicated. By learning how to cope with these situations, European countries can make more applicable and practical ethical governance in the life sciences,' said Mr Döring.
Countries
China