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天平上的基因 : 民為貴、Gene為輕 Jiunn-Rong Yeh et al., tianping shang de jiyin: min wei gui, Gene wei qin [Genes on the Scale] Taipei: Angle Publishing, 2006. 266 pp, NT $280. Wen-Tsong Chiou Received: 24 September 2009 /Accepted: 24 September 2009 /Published online: 26 May 2010 # National Science Council, Taiwan 2010 Finding the Missing Link Between ELSI and STS Ever since James Watson set aside between 3% and 5% of his annual Human Genome Project budget1 to promote the study of the ethical, legal, and social issues surrounding the sudden availability of genetic information, the field of American bioethics has gained a new momentum. While it was first associated with the development of the biomedical sciences, this newly remodeled field, commonly abbreviated as “ELSI,” has obtained the fame around the world and become a shibboleth for any science or technology project determined to earn public trust or at least to appease potential critics. By attaching an ELSI component to a science or technology project, researchers hope to have a hold over the ethical, legal, and social effects of the technology being developed (McCain 2002; National Human Genome Research Institute 2004). Taiwan’s first ELSI program was launched in 1998 as a part of what later became the National Research Program for Genomic Medicine (NRPGM), with strong institutional support from the National Science Council, the country’s primary funding agency, and other governmental departments. As in other countries, Taiwan’s ELSI programs now extend to areas of science and technology beyond biomedical research. For example, the National Science and Technology Development Plan of 2009–2012 adopted by the Executive Yuan requires that every “national science and technology program,” from research on agricultural biotechnology to telecommunications, is obliged to allocate a part of its budget to ELSI studies (The Executive Yuan 2009). Such institutional support has, over the past East Asian Science, Technology and Society: an International Journal (2010) 4:171–174 DOI 10.1007/s12280-010-9125-2 1 The annual project budget of US-HGP was approximately 135 million US dollars in 1991 and 437 million US dollars in 2003. W.-T. Chiou (*) Institutum Iurisprudentiae, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan e-mail: wentsong@gate.sinica.edu.tw decade, fostered rapid growth in the study of applied ethics, technology law, and other social sciences. Genes on the Scale developed in that hotbed of innovative thinking. The first author, Jiunn-Rong Yeh, previously acted as the codirector of the NRPGM-ELSI program; with his team of four prominent legal scholars, he outlined a research agenda meant, wrote Wenmay Rei, to “build up an institutional paradigm conducive to the development of biotechnology and to resolve legal, social, and ethical issues related to it” (Rei 2003). Yeh and his team offered a series of lectures meant to increase the scientific literacy of ELSI scholars, and a series of white papers was planned—first steps in an enterprise meant to ensure regular communication between scientists and the public. In the end, the plans remained unfulfilled, but the ideas formed the backbone of the book under review. The book is divided into three parts. Part I offers a basic introduction to the new genetic technologies. The authors survey genetics from Gregor Mendel’s experiments with peas in the mid-nineteenth century to the sequencing of the human genome in 2003. Next, they provide a brief explanation of how chromosomes, genes, and DNA work, before laying out an array of genetic technologies that seem to be inevitably or at least naturally developed from the basic sciences. The authors then sketch a general picture of the challenges that genetic technologies might pose to society. In Part II the authors present more detailed discussions of the ethical, legal, and social issues associated with the wave of new biotechnologies. In each of the dozen chapters, the authors explain how the specific biotechnology works and how it is used. They then consider the commonly perceived impacts of the technology on society. Against this backdrop, the authors review the relevant foreign and international regulations as well as the ethical guidelines already outlined elsewhere before outlining regulatory frameworks that might be applied in Taiwan. Among the topics discussed are genetic screening and testing, preimplantation genetic diagnosis...

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