THE STATUS OF GENETIC MATERIAL AND GENETIC INFORMATION IN THE NETHERLANDS

The moral status of genetic material and information and the ethics of controlling and manipulating them, is a topic of hot debate in many E uropean countries, including The Netherlands. That heat is due partly to the complexity of the topic, and partly to researchers' fear that t heir investigations will be hampered by restrictions on the use of per sonal data or body material. But there is little doubt that manifold d iverging interpretations about the status of the human body, body mate rials, and personal information in Dutch law, written and unwritten, c ontribute to the intensity of the debates. This article intends to str ucture the debate by creating more clarity at the conceptual level. By carefully examining relevant articles of the Constitution and Civil C odes, as well as policy documents and authoritative publications, nota bly in reference to prominent legal concepts such as property, ownersh ip and privacy, an answer should be provided to the following crucial question: is the status of genetic material and information in any sen se special in comparison with other body parts and other kinds of info rmation about a person? This paper first discusses the status of human body materials and personal information in general, and then continue s with a more specific discussion about the status of genetic material and information. It concludes that the Dutch legislature had carefull y avoided (or not felt the need to employ) the concept of ownership in regulating biomedical research; rather, privacy is found to be the pr ime regulatory concept. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.