Ethical, legal, and social issues in the Earth BioGenome Project.
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Authors
Barker, Katharine B
Easter, Carla L
Hudson, Maui
McCarthy, Catherine
McCartney, Ann M
Torrance, Andrew W
Publication Date
2022-01-25Journal Title
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
ISSN
0027-8424
Publisher
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Volume
119
Issue
4
Language
eng
Type
Article
This Version
VoR
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Sherkow, J. S., Barker, K. B., Braverman, I., Cook-Deegan, R., Durbin, R., Easter, C. L., Goldstein, M. M., et al. (2022). Ethical, legal, and social issues in the Earth BioGenome Project.. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 119 (4) https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2115859119
Abstract
The Earth BioGenome Project (EBP) is an audacious endeavor to obtain whole-genome sequences of representatives from all eukaryotic species on Earth. In addition to the project's technical and organizational challenges, it also faces complicated ethical, legal, and social issues. This paper, from members of the EBP's Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues (ELSI) Committee, catalogs these ELSI concerns arising from EBP. These include legal issues, such as sample collection and permitting; the applicability of international treaties, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol; intellectual property; sample accessioning; and biosecurity and ethical issues, such as sampling from the territories of Indigenous peoples and local communities, the protection of endangered species, and cross-border collections, among several others. We also comment on the intersection of digital sequence information and data rights. More broadly, this list of ethical, legal, and social issues for large-scale genomic sequencing projects may be useful in the consideration of ethical frameworks for future projects. While we do not-and cannot-provide simple, overarching solutions for all the issues raised here, we conclude our perspective by beginning to chart a path forward for EBP's work.
Keywords
Biodiversity, Genomics, Ethics, Ebp, Elsi, Animals, Humans, Ethics, Research, Endangered Species, Biosecurity
Identifiers
PMC8795529, 35042809
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2115859119
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/334244
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