Yin-yang genetics, or the hsd decode controversy

Abstract

Iceland has attracted world-wide attention because of a controversy surrounding the Icelandic Health Sector Database Act of 1998 and the genomics company deCODE Genetics. The controversy concerns limits to state power, bioethics and regulation of research, and civil liberties. Understanding it necessitates paying attention to the yin-yang-like character of deCODE; it is international or Icelandic, what is the relation between the HSD and deCODE, will the HSD engulf the Icelandic nation as a whole?