A Discussion of the Ethical Issues which Surround Pharmacogenetics

By Dr Sandy Thomas, Director of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics

Dr Sandy Thomas is Director of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics and Senior Fellow, Science Policy and Technology Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex. She trained as a Scientist at the University of London (BSc Botany and Zoology, MSc Crop Protection, PhD (Plant Genetics). After lecturing in genetics at the University of London, she became Research Fellow at the Science Policy Research and Technology Unit at the University of Sussex (1987-1997) where she specialised in policy research in life sciences and biotechnology. In 1997, she was appointed as Director of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics through a secondment from the University of Sussex. Over the past decade, she has published widely on the development of public policy for biotechnology, particularly in the area of intellectual property rights and the development and application of genomics. She was a member of the recent UK DFID Commission on Intellectual Property Rights.