Bioethics, population studies, and geneticophobia

Abstract

In any research of human populations, the classical principles of bioethics (respect for autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, proportionality between risks and benefits, and justice) should be strictly followed. The question of individual and/or community rights should also be considered, as well as some neglected rights, such as the right to benefit from progress in science and technology and the right to know the nature of the group’s biological and cultural history; however, in their urge to assure rights, social researchers, bioethics commissions, non-governmental organizations, and community leaders are, in many cases, crossing the limits of good sense. DNA is sometimes interpreted as synonymous to demoniac, and there is a frequent behaviour that I could only describe using a neologism: geneticophobia. There is an irrational attitude against genetic studies aiming to unravel the biological history of a given people and to classify any genome population study as “racist”. This behaviour should be opposed; science and the scientific study of humankind are the only way we have to reach the socially adequate objective of the maximum of happiness to the largest number of persons.