Preliminary draft of a Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights.

The Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights sets out generally agreed criteria in response to the human rights challenges posed by advances in molecular biology and genetics. The lynchpin of these criteria is respect for human dignity, a premise from which other principles are derived. The author examines and gives the justification for these principles, and refers to another crucial bioethics text, the recent Council of Europe Convention on the protection of human rights and the dignity of the human person in regard to applications of biology and medicine.