Can existing legal and ethical norms accommodate biotechnologies which may benefit the recipient but harm the public?

1. Introducing the issues; 2. Dealing with risk; 3. Regulating experimental procedures and medical research; 4. Regulatory responses to developing biotechnologies; 5. Challenges to legal and ethical norms: first party consent and third parties at risk; 6. Surveillance and monitoring: balancing public health and individual freedom; 7. Looking to the future.

Sara Fovargue is a Senior Lecturer in Law at Lancaster University, where she specialises in health care law and ethics. Her main interests are clinical research involving human and non-human animals, risk and regulation with regards to developing biotechnologies and decision-making practices for vulnerable groups within health care law and practice.