以原住民族為對象之基因研究成果利益分享問題

Indigenous peoples are important subjects of genetic research, but their special social status and culture are often ignored. In some cases, researchers even exploitated indigenous peoples without providing them with interests from research results fairly and appropriately. Although genetic research ethics concerning indigenous peoples have been paid lots of attention worldwide, issues about benefit-sharing shall also be included in the ethic structure to change the unfair relationship between genetic researchers and indigenous peoples. Besides, in order not to commodify human bodies, we should be careful that the sharing of research benefits can not be the inducement to indigenous peoples. According to suggestions and declarations of international organizations, we know there are various ways to design the benefitsharing measures for indigenous peoples. Taking the principle of ＂respect for communities＂ into consideration, this article stresses that researchers shall clearly inform indigenous peoples about the interests and commercial uses before research, and so that indigenous peoples could express their opinions and discuss with researchers. Researchers cannot just regard indigenous peoples as ＂guinea pigs,＂ and they are partners in genetic research. However, laws about research ethics in Taiwan have not provided enough protection for indigenous peoples yet. We're looking forward to that, in the near future, we can constitute more legal protection or ethical discussion for indigenous peoples to avoid the burst of protests of indigenous peoples toward genetic researchers such as the Kavalan case in 2007.