Genomic sovereignty and the African promise : mining the African genome for the benefit of Africa

Abstract

Scientific interest in genomics in Africa is on the rise
 with a number of funding initiatives aimed specifically at
 supporting research in this area. Genomics research on
 material of African origin raises a number of important
 ethical issues. A prominent concern relates to sample
 export, which is increasingly seen by researchers and
 ethics committees across the continent as being
 problematic. The concept of genomic sovereignty
 proposes that unique patterns of genomic variation can
 be found in human populations, and that these are
 commercially, scientifically or symbolically valuable and
 in need of protection against exploitation. Although it is
 appealing as a response to increasing concerns
 regarding sample export, there are a number of
 important conceptual problems relating to the term. It is
 not clear, for instance, whether it is appropriate that
 ownership over human genomic samples should rest
 with national governments. Furthermore, ethnic groups
 in Africa are frequently spread across multiple nation
 states, and protection offered in one state may not
 prevent researchers from accessing the same group
 elsewhere. Lastly, scientific evidence suggests that the
 assumption that genomic data is unique for population
 groups is false. Although the frequency with which
 particular variants are found can differ between groups,
 such genes or variants per se are not unique to any
 population group. In this paper, the authors describe
 these concerns in detail and argue that the concept of
 genomic sovereignty alone may not be adequate to
 protect the genetic resources of people of African
 descent.

JdV acknowledges receipt of a Postdoctoral Fellowship from
 the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town. MP acknowledges support
 by the Medical Research Council South Africa.

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