Engaging Experts in Global Biotech Governance: What Influences their Judgement on Value-Laden Challenges?

Abstract

Abstract Experts play important roles in global biotech governance. In serving their roles, they are often selected based on their expertise rather than the representativeness of social diversity. However, current biotechnology development generates many value-laden issues. This led us to ask what may affect experts’ attitudes towards such issues, besides expertise. In this paper, we explored experts’ attitudes towards human genetic data governance—a value-laden global challenge. Thirty-two experts from 12 countries were interviewed regarding their attitudes towards the commercialization of, global sharing of, and personal privacy protection in acquiring and using human genetic data. By analysing the interview transcripts with thematic analysis, we found that experts differ in their attitudes, and organizational affiliation and national regulatory context influence their attitudes. The results call for rethinking the role of epistemic community and facilitating inclusive participation of experts from various socioeconomic backgrounds in addressing global challenges.