This key collection brings together a selection of papers commissioned and published by the Cardiff Centre for Ethics, Law & Society. It incorporates contributions from a group of international experts along with a selection of short opinion pieces written in response to specific ethical issues. The collection addresses issues arising in biomedical and medical ethics ranging from assisted reproductive technologies to the role of clinical ethics committees. It examines broader societal issues with particular emphasis on sustainability and the environment and also focuses on issues of human rights in current global contexts. The contributors collect responses to issues arising from high profile cases such as the legitimacy of war in Iraq to physician-related suicide. The volume will provide a valuable resource for practitioners and academics with an interest in ethics across a range of disciplines.

This key collection brings together a selection of papers commissioned and published by the Cardiff Centre for Ethics, Law & Society. It incorporates contributions from a group of international experts along with a selection of short opinion pieces written in response to specific ethical issues. The collection addresses issues arising in biomedical and medical ethics ranging from assisted reproductive technologies to the role of clinical ethics committees. It examines broader societal issues with particular emphasis on sustainability and the environment and also focuses on issues of human rights in current global contexts. The contributors collect responses to issues arising from high profile cases such as the legitimacy of war in Iraq to physician-related suicide. The volume will provide a valuable resource for practitioners and academics with an interest in ethics across a range of disciplines.

Biobanking, i.e. storage of biological samples or data emerging from such samples for diagnostic, therapeutic or research purposes, has been going on for decades. However, it is only since the mid 1990s that these activities have become the subject of considerable public attention, concern and debate. This shift in climate is due to several factors. The purpose of this book is to investigate some of the ethical, legal and social challenges raised by research biobanking in its different modern forms and formats. The issues raised by research biobanking in its modern form can be divided into four main clusters: how biological materials are entered into the bank; research biobanks as institutions; under what conditions researchers can access materials in the bank, and problems concerning ownership of biological materials and of intellectual property arising from such materials; and how the information is collected and stored, e.g. access-rights, disclosure, confidentiality, data security and data protection.

Biobanking, i.e. storage of biological samples or data emerging from such samples for diagnostic, therapeutic or research purposes, has been going on for decades. However, it is only since the mid 1990s that these activities have become the subject of considerable public attention, concern and debate. This shift in climate is due to several factors. The purpose of this book is to investigate some of the ethical, legal and social challenges raised by research biobanking in its different modern forms and formats. The issues raised by research biobanking in its modern form can be divided into four main clusters: how biological materials are entered into the bank; research biobanks as institutions; under what conditions researchers can access materials in the bank, and problems concerning ownership of biological materials and of intellectual property arising from such materials; and how the information is collected and stored, e.g. access-rights, disclosure, confidentiality, data security and data protection.

'It is very hard to produce a timely book about a subject that changes as quickly as technologically assisted reproduction, but John Harris and Soren Holm have managed to do exactly that. The fourteen essays in this small volume provide an extremely useful and highly readable overview of the key moral, legal, and social themes raised by new ways of making babies. . . . The book is unique in that it offers perspectives on all these topics from a variety of disciplines and professions as well as from a broad range of national and cultural perspectives.' Arthur Caplan, British Medical Journal