This provides the justification for gathering information on ethical practices in different countries. Poverty is the root cause of many unethical practices. However the poor man who is struggling to make a living does not consider these to be unethical, for example donating a kidney in return for money , because this enables him to survive and improve the lot of his family, while giving life to some one else. The society and the government see these as unethical and the government in India enacted laws to control organ transplantation, and to bring in the concept of brain death to ensure the availability of organs for transplantation. One of the greatest ethical conflicts in both developing and developed countries is the inequality of medical services for the poor and the rich, and the rural and urban populations.
Illiteracy is another modifier in the practice of ethical principles.
In an educated society one can give non-directive counseling, but this does not work out in illiterate societies. So some differences in the practice of medical genetics would have to be acceptable keeping in view the local socio-economic and religious conditions. The advent of new technologies has resulted in a remarkable change in the practice of medical genetics. These lead to conflicts because the classical ethical principles had evolved when these technologies were not available. For example with the advent of amniocentesis and the discovery of the discovery of Y chromosome fluorescence the technology started to be used for sex selection in India and other developing countries.