Michael Fuchs National ethics councils - Deutscher Ethikrat

Michael Fuchs National ethics councils. Their backgrounds, functions and modes of operation compared
Estonia
The initiative for a concern with bioethics in research and education in Estonia
stemmed from the University of Tartu, where a commission on ethical issues of research
on human subjects was formed as long ago as in 1990. A similar commission
was established three years later at the Institute of Experimental and Clinical Medicine
in Tallinn. Both commissions currently perform the function of monitoring research
projects involving human subjects, as provided by the Helsinki-Tokyo Declaration.
Most (80%) of the research applications are addressed to the Tartu University commission.
In addition, in 1995 the Estonian Medical Society established an ethics committee
whose main task was to revise the old Estonian Codex Deontologicus.
A national ethics council proper has existed in Estonia only since 1998. The Estonian
Council on Bioethics was established by the country’s Ministry of Social Affairs.
Arvo Tikk, Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery at the University of Tartu
and founding President of the Council, describes its task as that of a coordination
centre. The work undertaken at Tartu was directed primarily towards making
bioethics a compulsory subject for medical students.
The Estonian Council can justifiably be seen as a coordinating body, as its eleven
members include not only representatives of the Committee on the Ethics of Research
on Human Subjects and of the Committee on Clinical Ethics, but also specialists
from the fields of paediatrics, organ transplantation, genetics, artificial
fertilization and law. One member is also a deputy in the Estonian Parliament. The
task of the Council is to make recommendations to Parliament and to the Minister
of Social Affairs on current problems of medicine and bioethics, in particular with a
view to legislation. The Council also considers itself responsible for training and
postgraduate training functions. Finally, the members of the Estonian Council regard
participation in the work of international bodies, within both the Council of Europe
and the Nordic Committee on Bioethics, as an important part of their work.
The Estonian debate on bioethics has attracted worldwide attention owing to the
Estonian Genome Project, which involves the creation of a database that will contain
health and genetic data for the Estonian population. The project is to be implemented
over a five-year period and will cover about a million persons. The project was given
a statutory basis in 2000 when the Human Genome Research Law was adopted by
the Estonian Parliament. Section 29(1) of this Law provides that the ethical aspects
of work undertaken in the context of the project shall be examined by an ethics committee.
This committee was formed on 21 December 2001, when it held its first meeting.
It has seven members, who are appointed by the Supervisory Board of the Chief
Processor of the Gene Bank. The committee is also responsible for liaison with the
Estonian population, for whom it acts as a source of information.
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Website
Estonian Council on Bioethics (Ethics Committee for the Genome Project): http://www.geenivaramu.ee
Bibliography
Storm, L. (2001). Die wichtigste Entscheidung ist in Estland schon gefallen. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung vom
30. April 2001 (Politik): 5.
Tikk, A.; Parve, V. (2000). Ethic Committees in Estonia. In: Glasa, J.; Council of Europe (ed.). Ethics Committees
in Central & Eastern Europe. Bratislava: 173 – 178.
Lithuania
Lithuania has had a national bioethics committee (Lietuvos bioetikos komitetas,
LBEK) since 1995. It was established by a decree of the Minister of Health of 27 December
1995 after the Law on the Lithuanian Health System took effect. All its members
are also appointed by the Minister of Health. There are 17 members, equally
divided between medical and non-medical specialists (the latter being legal experts,
ethicists, philosophers, psychologists, theologians, etc.). Members are appointed on
the basis of experience and expertise in the field of biomedical ethics. The chair was
elected by majority vote at the constituent meeting. He is Eugenijus Gefenas, who is
also a member of the CDBI and of the IBC (UNESCO). Since 1997 he has been Professor
of Biomedical Ethics at the University of Vilnius. The institution and competence
of the Lithuanian Bioethics Committee are governed by the Law of 11 May
2000 on the Ethics of Biomedical Research. The Lithuanian Committee has the status
of a legal entity whose activities are funded from the state budget.
The Committee’s specific tasks, under Article 13(2) of the founding decree, are to
analyse bioethical problems and to advise central and local authorities and organizations
on these matters, to submit proposals and conclusions in relation to laws and
other legal instruments for the regulation of bioethical problems, to prepare Opinions
and ethical reports on biomedical research and to monitor the work of regional
biomedical research ethics committees. Once a year it is required to submit a report
of activities to the Minister of Health and to make proposals on how biomedical
problems should be addressed. The Committee must assess the extent to which
individual and public healthcare conforms to the requirements of medical ethics and
monitor legal entities’ observance of bioethical principles. Other tasks are the provision
of methodological support and advice to medical ethics committees in healthcare
institutions, as well as representing Lithuania in international organizations
concerned with issues falling within the Committee’s field of competence.
The enumeration of these tasks illustrates the intense concentration of responsibilities
for bioethical debate and advice in Lithuania. For the practical operation of
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