For months, a lone Icelandic geneticist has been trying to persuade his compatriots that their inbred genes and sophisticated medical records are a valuable national resource which need protecting from foreign opportunists. The move is of global importance. We are fast approaching an era in which, for the wellbeing of others, people in many countries will be asked to donate blood and medical records for detailed DNA analysis and research.
Some countries enjoy vast reserves of oil or timber.
There is nothing demeaning or sacrilegious about attempting to profit from such a resource. Unfortunately for Iceland, the details of its bill look all wrong. Privacy is a particular headache. Names and addresses will be stripped from medical records before they are entered on the database, but a mass of other data will stay. It will also need to develop a more sophisticated idea of what informed consent means.