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  3. The devil, as the old saying goes, is in the details. Or, in the case of the new Estonian law setting up a national genetic data

The devil, as the old saying goes, is in the details. Or, in the case of the new Estonian law setting up a national genetic data

admin2015-02-12  66
问题     The devil, as the old saying goes, is in the details. Or, in the case of the new Estonian law setting up a national genetic data bank, there is reason for concern that the devil may get involved in the actual workings of that country’s Human Gene Research Act.
    The authors of the 34-section act have made a serious effort to prevent misuse of the data and to protect gene donors’ rights and privacy. Participation in the project is strictly voluntary, on the basis of informed consent. It will be illegal to ask anyone if he or she is participating in the free program. People won’t be paid for providing a tissue sample, medical, and family history to the Estonian Gene Bank. That information is immediately given "a unique code consisting of at least 16 random characters." Genetic and medical data become and remain the property of the Estonian Gene Bank— except that individual donors have the right, "at any time," to request "destruction of the data which enables decoding." They can also have their sample materials destroyed if their identity has been unlawfully disclosed.
    Donors are entitled to their own genetic data, at no charge, as are their designated physicians. No one else has lawful access to this information. Indeed, it is unlawful to ask—and the act contains specific paragraphs that forbid employers and insurance companies to gather such information, or to treat "people with different genetic risks" differently as employees or insurance clients. Genetic information may be released to researchers "only in coded form, as a set of data and on the condition that tissue samples or data concerning at least five gene donors are issued at a time."
    Supporters of the project expect that the Estonian Gene Bank will become a favorite source of information for researchers associated with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies that are expected to pay handsomely for access to the decoded(and anonymous)information. Some firms are expected to set up shop in Estonia, presumably in or near the university city of Tartu where most Estonian geneticists live and work. The project is expected to "put Estonia on the map" and lead to an economic bonanza for a newly independent country with few natural resources.
    Not everybody shares that view. Regardless of the favorable poll results, a number of objections have been published in Estonian-language newspapers. These range from the simplistic "If it’s such a great idea, how come the French and Germans aren’t doing it already?" to arguments that the startup money could be spent on better things. Some commentators are also concerned about privacy. Information in the data bank could be used for blackmail—and is there a data bank in the world that is truly secure from hackers? And what about leaks? Allegations of corruption are a fact of public life in post-Soviet independent states. Estonia’s scandals have been less lurid than those of other states, but there have been enough to engender considerable cynicism, not just about leaked data, but also about payoffs where lucrative contracts are involved.
The author’s attitude towards Estonia’s new laws governing the genetic data bank seems to be that of______.
选项 A、ambivalence
B、caution
C、approval
D、skepticism
答案B
解析 属态度推断题。题目问及作者对爱沙尼亚制定的有关管理基因资料库的新法律的态度。事实上，文章一开始就指出“……有理由担心国家的《人类基因研究法案》的真正实施可能令人伤脑筋”，接下来的几段介绍了基因资料库项目要求、内容及人们的反应。由此可推断作者的态度应该是选项B“小心谨慎”，而非选项A“矛盾”、选项C“赞成”、选项D“怀疑”。
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