All good scientists will be aware that sometimes,perhaps even often,their research will have implications for people and wider society beyond the laboratory.Considering those implications-the potential benefits and harms-and how they fit with the values people hold important,is how bioethicists spend their days.Bioethics has become a global occupation,with large amounts of academic research being undertaken across the world and government-appointed bioethics committees now in existence in many countries.The UK is no different,and we have a thriving bioethics community.Something that sets us apart,however,is the absence of a state-run bioethics committee.There is some history behind this.In the late 1980s,the quest to map the entire human genome was gaining momentum,and the lack of a UK national bioethics committee to consider the ethical issues this raised was emerging as a problem.Parliamentary debates on abortion and embryo research took place without,according to the British Medical Journal,”a clear and authoritative source of professional advice or a collective lead on the wider ethical and policy issues”.Yet the government of the day were not minded to set up a national bioethics committee.
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