Unfortunately questions and debate can proceed in the corridors of the conference venue, as we do not have enough time. Thank you also Judge Byk, of the International Association of Law, Ethics and Science. First I would like to point out that article 1 of the final version of the Universal Declaration does not say the genome is the common heritage specifically as the earlier versions. It was made by governments who were concerned that the previous wording would prevent patenting of human genes. What do you think about the exceptions.
Genetic information raises some difficult issues of confidentiality.
I do not mean here the question raised by an insurance company or employer, but simply the medical issues. It is related to the fact that the genetic information is important to the family as well, so sometimes it will be informative for other members of the family to know more about the risks that they themselves have, when another member has a test. In some European countries, like France, there is a very strict concept of medical confidentiality, but probably we need an evolution of this concept. It has been difficult to do it in the Council of Europe, new recommendations are needed on medical use of genetic data. I am still considering what Mr. Shapiro said, about the words, the common heritage, in a symbolic sense.