News

Researchers for the Inter-University Chair in Law and the Human Genome, run by Deusto University and the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), have been working to produce a report entitled ‘Ethical controls in Biomedicine. An analysis of the situation and recommendations’. This document, promoted and backed by the Roche Institute, is the result of work carried out by a multidisciplinary group of researchers over a period of two years.

The main objective of this report is to define the work of the various bodies charged with ethical and legal evaluation for biomedical activity in healthcare and research. This work has involved producing a rigorous analysis of competences and functional diagrams to detect any possible conflicts caused by the activities of these bodies.

Where any discrepancy is found, the report gives a series of solutions to try to resolve it, resulting in a final document that gives an overall map of those bodies with the authority to control biomedical activities at both national and local level. This document is aimed mainly at research workers and managers of health centres or research establishments, health workers, members of ethical committees, regulatory agents and the public administration.

The group coordinators in charge of writing the report are Carlos María Romeo Casabona, professor in Criminal Law and Director of the Inter-University Chair in Law and the Human Genome of Deusto University and the University of the Basque Country, and Pilar Nicolás Jiménez, researcher for the chair with funding from the BBVA Foundation and the Bizkaia County Administration.

The session to present the ‘Ethical controls in Biomedicine. An analysis of the situation and recommendations’ document will take place in Madrid on 27 October next in the Amphitheatre at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).