ABSTRACT
In relation to the advancement of human genetics and its various applications, it has recently become commonplace to argue that the individual-centred framework should be replaced or at least complemented by one where more collective values and public interests are represented. Public interest is not by default in conflict with private interests and these can often overlap, in fact, one might reasonably have a private interest in the common interest being respected. In a pluralist approach rankings of values are reasonable only in particular situations because they depend on both facts of reality as well as on the traditions upheld and individual conceptions of a good life. Generally, medical ethics, and more recently bioethics, have in the West largely been guided by values of liberal individualism, thus stressing every person's voluntary decision-making capacity as the supreme value in research and medical practice.
