ABSTRACT
Genetic sampling and gene-banking serves various areas of research. As part of the Human Genome Project (HGP), which was initiated in 1991, it served the completion of the human genome map. As part of the Human Genome Diversity Project (HGDP) samples from indigenous populations served to avoid the irreversible loss of genetic information. Referring to indigenous populations as isolates of historic interest (IHIs), the HGDP planned to immortalise the DNA of disappearing populations for future study. One aim of the gene banks for scientists is to reconstruct the history of the world’s populations by studying genetic variation to determine patterns of human migration. As will become clear in this chapter, these new scientific findings concerning our origins can be used in disputes on aboriginal rights to territory, resources and self-determination. The initial conceptualisation of the HGDP has been widely criticised for its consideration of indigenous peoples as mere research subjects, with little regard for their continued livelihood. For this reason, according to the American National Institute of Health (NIH), the HGDP has been substituted by the haplotype effort. As part of the global initiative to create a haplotype map (participants in the initiative are USA, UK, Japan, China and Canada) and commercial haplotyping, genetic sampling is supposed to be exclusively used for the advancement of medical knowledge that emphasises the differences between the genetic make-up of different individuals.1 This claim, however, is open to dispute, as patterns of variation between individuals are still generalised over entire populations, which are likely to be stigmatised in situations of conflicting political and socio-economic interests (cf. Lee 2003). Case-studies of genetic sampling in China and Taiwan are interesting in
this context for political, economic and cultural reasons. First, the different socio-political and economic circumstances in Mainland China and in Taiwan affect the ways in which genomics research takes place. The various criteria
for group delineation include examples of their effect on genetic sampling and the formation of genetic knowledge. Second, in China and Taiwan research target groups, i.e. IHIs, are defined through different cultural and political perceptions. Taiwan itself has become an IHI in a political sense, as it has been almost completely ostracised diplomatically from the international community under the weight of the PRC, while the PRC has become recognised as a full political and sovereign player on the international diplomatic platform. Their respective histories and cultural and national identities have brought with them different forms of state organisation and different perceptions of marginal economic, cultural and ethnic groups. These perceptions always involve ideas about the extent to which we define groups as static or dynamic. Relatively static criteria are associated with perceptions of nature, such as genetics, race, stable biological features, and language (sic), while relatively dynamic criteria are associated with a changing environment, such as economic development, social improvement, cultural change and other forms of potential advancement. But in the field of genomics, the main problem is precisely how to distinguish populations from one another on the basis of genetic criteria. In other words, before genetic sampling of populations begins, estimates are made about the genetic nature of these populations. The question in this chapter is, therefore, how in the PRC and the ROC the criteria used for population group definitions and the delineation of bioethical interest groups influence practices of genetic mapping, and vice versa. It seems safe to assume that the suitability of the criteria researchers use
for group delineation depends on their perceived relevance to the research problem at hand. The problem is, however, that the definition of such groupings is intimately related to cultural perception and political outlook. I illustrate this by discussing criteria used for the delineation of groups in Mainland Chinese and Taiwanese contexts.
