This book provides an analysis of the ways in which the BAC has established an ethical framework for biomedical research in Singapore, following the launch of the Biomedical Sciences Initiative by the Singapore Government. The editors and authors have an intimate knowledge of the working of the BAC, and the focus of the book includes the ways in which international forces have influenced the form and substance of bioethics in Singapore. Together, the authors offer a comparative account of the institutionalisation of biomedical research ethics in Singapore, considered in the wider context of international regulatory efforts. The book reviews the work of the BAC by placing it within the broader cultural, social and political discourses that have emerged in relation to the life sciences since the turn of the 21st century. This book is not primarily intended to be a retrospect or an appraisal of the contribution of the BAC, though this is one aspect of it. Rather, the main intention is to make a substantive contribution to the rapidly emerging field of bioethics. Ethical discussions in the book include consideration of stem cell research and cloning, genetics and research with human participants, and focus on likely future developments as well as the past.

The Coming of Bioethics to Singapore (W C Ho & S S N Lim); The Impact of the Bioethics Advisory Committee on the Research Community in Singapore (C K M Chan & E T Liu); Engaging the Public: The Role of the Media (A-L Chang & J Tan); Confucian Trust and the Biomedical Regulatory Framework in Singapore (A T Nuyen); The Clinician-Researcher: A Servant of Two Masters? (A V Campbell et al.); The US Model for Oversight of Human Stem Cell Research (L Parham & B Lo); Genetics and Stem Cell Research: Models of International Policy-Making (B Knoppers et al.); Public Engagement and Bioethics Commissions (T H Murray & R S White); Norm-making of Human-Animal Chimeras and Hybrids in Singapore, the United Kingdom and the International Domain (W C Ho & M Bobrow); How will Future Bioethical Issues Engage Singapore? (J Elliott).