Genetics and Gene Therapy.(Biotechnological Inventions: Moral Restraints and Patent Law)(Book review)

GENETICS AND GENE THERAPY Sheila A M McLean (ed) Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005, xxxi + 535pp, HB, USD225.00/GBP120.00 ISBN 0-7546-2055-7 and BIOTECHNOLOGICAL INVENTIONS: MORAL RESTRAINTS AND PATENT LAW Oliver Mills Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004, xvii + 195pp, HB, USD99.95/GBP55.00 ISBN 0-7546-2420-X

These two books share an underlying theme that the role of law in the development of new genetic technologies is to be facilitative as well as regulatory. The collection edited by Professor Sheila McLean contains 24 papers published recently, mainly from international law and bioethics journals. This collection forms part of Ashgate's International Library of Medicine, Ethics and Law. The book is divided into two equal parts, with the first focussing on a general discussion about the genetic enterprise as a whole, and the second on cutting edge debates in genetics such as cloning and gene therapy. Part one starts with several papers by lawyers and bioethicists. They begin by discussing law and regulation, before moving on to talk about the (mis)use of genetic information and the possibilities of discrimination, especially with regard to race and gender. The chapters then address the effects on kin networks of genetic information about individuals, on privacy more widely, and on genetic testing in the workplace. Finally, this section ends with a paper on pharmacogenetics and healthcare. Part two covers 'practical' genetics seen as the future applications of genetic knowledge to the creation, manipulation and enhancement of human beings. It begins with a discussion of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, and predictive genetic testing for early childhood conditions, followed by papers on genetic modification and enhancement. The last seven contributions explore the debates about human cloning and stem cell therapy.

The introduction by McLean is a thorough summary of the book's contents and illustrates clearly the importance and significance of the topics under discussion. It does not, however, go further than the stated aim to suggest that the law should be formulated in such a way as to facilitate the development of the new genetics, and so fails to take issue with the debates it describes. This leaves the reader with no clear view as to why these particular papers were chosen, or indeed, what has been left out and why. The lack of a concluding chapter further limits the usefulness of this volume to anyone not already closely familiar with the field. However, to those researchers and teachers looking for a 'one stop shop' of current debates in a contentious new area spanning medicine and the law, this book brings together many of the key contributions. It is a pity, for this ageing reviewer at least, that the contributions are reproduced in the format of the journals from which they were abstracted. This results in an untidy and uneven appearance, and in the case of those articles printed in two columns, some difficulty in reading the text.

The monograph by Dr Oliver Mills takes a closer look at one of the areas of controversy mentioned only briefly in the McLean collection, namely patenting biotechnological inventions. It is Mills' contention that by elucidating moral concerns associated with the new genetic ...