CHINA: Genetics Project Causes Concern

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Judith Perera

LONDON, Nov 13 1996 (IPS) - Geneticists are concerned about a project in which a French company will investigate the DNA of China’s 1.2 billion people for genes indicating major diseases.

The Paris-based company, Genset, has signed a letter of intent with the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, which operates 25 research institutes and all of China’s hospitals.

The leading British scientific weekly New Scientist reports in this week’s issue, published Friday, that Genset, working with the French trading company Tang Frere International, will employ some 20 researchers to collect the DNA and diagnose any diseases.

Samples will be analysed in Paris using gene-sequencing machines with the aim of developing diagnostic tests and new drugs.

Concern has arisen because of China’s eugenics law which came into force in June 1995. This requires couples planning marriage to undergo genetic screening for genetic diseases infectious diseases and mental disorders.

Any couples carrying culprit genes are permitted to marry only if they agree to sterilisation or long-term contraception.

The law, which gives the government power to decide which conditions to test for, has provoked indignation in the West. Professor Peter Harper of the University of Wales’ medical genetics department says the Genset contract is “a pretty serious issue, and one which could bring genetics into grave disrepute”.

The President of Britain’s Genetical Society, David Sherratt of Oxford University, advises Genset to insist on a specific undertaking from China that the information obtained during the project will not be used against individuals.

“The company should say that some bits of the law are evil,” he says. The Genetical Society has suspended its affiliation to the International Genetics Federation in protest at its decision to hold its next International Congress of Genetics in Beijing in 1998. Many other researchers are threatening to boycott the congress unless the law is repealed.

Genset and the Chinese Academy are now working out the details of the agreement. Genset President Pascal Brandys says “It’s our intention to have clauses related to ethics.” Academy Vice President Lu Shendong refused to comment on the project until the final agreement is signed.

According to Academy President Luand Ba Denian: “We view gene research as extremely important for Chinese health care in the 21st Century and we are convinced that our joint effort will lead to fundamental discoveries which will benefit not just China but the rest of the world.”

The population of China is interesting to geneticists because rural populations have remained static for centuries making each region different in its pattern of genes and diseases.

This makes it easier to trace a hereditary diseases back to a specific defective gene which may be unusually abundant where the disease is prevalent.

“You can treat regional local populations almost like single families,” explains Brandys.

In addition to this, the diseases which affect China’s population differ from those most prevalent in the West.

This provides an opportunity to study new or relatively rare diseases such as cancer of the gullet which is much more common in China than it is in the West.

Brandys says he is aware of and understands the grave concerns of Western scientists. the company will apply the same ethical safeguards as it would in the West in taking samples from Chinese citizens, he insists, adding the genetic information will be used anonymously. He says he is confident that the research results will not be used to implement the eugenics law.

“I don’t think that in the short term it will be possible to do large-scale population screening,” he says, “although it may become an issue in China in the next millennium.” For the present, however, Genset plans to “work towards new medicines — which is very different from population screening.”

However Peter Harper is not convinced. “If you have a commercial company coming to a major agreement like this with a government committed to widespread eugenic abuse, it’s something many scientists would be concerned about.”