ABSTRACT
Recent developments in biology and biomedical science have turned human beings into desirable research subjects. The revision to the Declaration of Helsinki in 2000 (WMA 2000) recognises the use of human material and data in medical research. Now, biomedical science has developed to the point that indirect medical research is partly replacing clinical research with living human subjects (HGC 2002; Masui 2002a, 2004a; NBAC 2001; NCBE 1995; Umeda et al. 1998). Moreover, economic interests in human health and disease augment this situation. Commercial enterprises are motivated to develop analytical agents, equipment, and information systems for indirect medical research. This situation is especially strengthened by the use of human genome information in biological studies of our species to stratify the human population into comparable and biologically standardised groups.
