Abstract

Although ethics committees in Japan have been developing in major medical schools and in some hospitals, their members are usually medical professionals from the same institution. The lack of national legislation for setting up ethics committees permits only a voluntary code of standards for doing clinical research work in high tech medical applications. The author argues for the necessity of more open debate on bioethical issues and proposes the participation of the lay public and bioethicists in Ethics Committees in Japan. Keywords: ethics committees, bioethics, Japan, patients' rights, high-tech medicine CiteULike Connotea Del.icio.us What's this?