07 February 2004	Saturday	15 Zilhaj 1424

ISLAMABAD, Feb 6: The government has established a National Bioethics Committee (NBC) to deal with issues relating to bioethics.

The health ministry approved the setting up of NBC on the recommendation of Pakistan Medical Research Council (PMRC). According to a government announcement, the NBC would act as an advisory body dealing with all aspects of bioethics in the country.

The committee will also promote and facilitate ethical health services delivery and health research and will be an umbrella body linked with the ethical review bodies in organizations and institutions like Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), medical training and teaching institutions and universities and the recently constituted Good Clinical Practices (GCP) committee of the Ministry of Health's Drug Division.

Though tremendous advances in the field of modern medicine have brought immense benefits to humans, it has also increased the potential of harm. To protect the interest of individuals, guidelines and mechanisms need to be put in place within the health system. The issue of ethics in health research is being given increasing recognition and importance internationally.

The international community and donors, after realizing its importance, are willing to fund research which has not been put up to ethical scrutiny and received ethical clearance.

In Pakistan no system for ethical clearance has as yet been put in place and as a result local researchers seeking international funding and researchers from abroad face problems in getting the required ethical clearance for their projects.

In addition, to protect the people from harm and exploitation in the name of research, the Health Research System of the country needs to develop standards, processes and guidelines for scrutiny of the ethical aspect of all health research being undertaken within the country.

Therefore, the NBC was constituted in accordance with international guidelines formulated for such committees.

The committee is truly multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral in compositions with relevant expertise from across many disciplines of medicine, along with well-respected 'non-medical' people representing the interests and concerns of the community.

The committee has been established in accordance with applicable laws and regulations of the country and in accordance with values and principles of the community it serves.

The federal health minister and health secretary will be the patrons of NBC with director-general health as its chairman.

The other ex-officio members of the NBC shall be the presidents (or their representatives) of the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan, the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council, Supreme Court Bar Association (representative of lawyers) and the WHO country representative in Pakistan.

The committee is also seeking nominations from Human Rights Commission and from the health departments of the Punjab and Balochistan.

The PMRC will provide a secretariat to the NBC and will take the responsibility of arranging regular meetings of the committee and submitting its decisions and recommendations to the relevant quarters for implementation.