ABSTRACT
On June 27, 2001, the Advisory Committee on Health Research (ACHR) of the World Health Organisation (WHO) conducted hearings in Geneva for a Special Report on Genomics & Health. Initially intended as a document to address the ethical, legal and social implications of the gathering genomics revolution (ELSI), the ACHR's terms of reference were subsequently modified to give primary emphasis to a scientific and technological assessment of the implications of genomics for human health, in particular, the prospects and challenges arising from these developments for countries of the South. The Citizens' Health Initiative (CHI), one of two NGOs invited to make submissions at these consultations, suggested that no less important than the scientific and technical assessment was a perspective which gave due attention to the social context and political economy of scientific/technological development and its deployment. The article below touches upon neglected health priorities of the South, intellectual property rights and patents, risk management, insurance and discrimination, and predictive (prenatal) testing, reproductive choice, and eugenics.
