Genetics journal retracts 17 papers from China due to human rights concerns
Source: The Guardian
Genetics journal retracts 17 papers from China due to human rights concerns
Researchers used samples from populations deemed by experts and campaigners to be vulnerable to exploitation, including Uyghurs and Tibetans
Amy Hawkins Senior China correspondent
@amyhawk_
Thu 15 Feb 2024 01.40 GMT
Last modified on Thu 15 Feb 2024 01.43 GMT
A genetics journal from a leading scientific publisher has retracted 17 papers from China, in what is thought to be the biggest mass retraction of academic research due to concerns about human rights.
The articles were published in Molecular Genetics & Genomic Medicine (MGGM), a genetics journal published by the US academic publishing company Wiley. The papers were retracted on 12 February after an agreement between the journal’s editor in chief, Suzanne Hart, and the publishing company. In a review process that took over two years, investigators found “inconsistencies” between the research and the consent documentation provided by researchers.
The papers by different scientists are all based on research that draws on DNA samples collected from populations in China. In several cases, the researchers used samples from populations deemed by experts and human rights campaigners to be vulnerable to exploitation and oppression in China, leading to concerns that they would not be able to freely consent to such samples being taken.
Several of the researchers are associated with public security authorities in China, a fact that “voids any notion of free informed consent”, said Yves Moreau, a professor of engineering at the University of Leuven, in Belgium, who focuses on DNA analysis. Moreau first raised concerns about the papers with Hart, MGGM’s editor-in-chief, in March 2021.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/15/china-retracts-papers-molecular-genetics-genomic-medicine
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Source: Nature
24 January 2024
Correction 05 February 2024
Update 05 February 2024
Unethical studies on Chinese minority groups are being retracted — but not fast enough, critics say
Campaigners who want scrutiny of biometrics research on Uyghurs, Tibetans and other groups are frustrated by slow progress.
By Dyani Lewis
A policeman observes passers-by in Kashgar in Xinjiang, China, where there are reports of human-rights abuses against Uyghur people. Credit: Kevin Frayer/Getty
Yves Moreau thought something was amiss when he came across a genetics paper about Tibetans in China. In the 2022 report in PLoS ONE, a team of researchers had collected blood samples from hundreds of people in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China and recorded genetic markers on their X chromosomes. The researchers concluded that this analysis was useful for forensic identification and paternity testing1.
The paper raised immediate red flags for Moreau. Over the past half-decade Moreau, who is a computational geneticist at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, has become deeply concerned about the ethics of studies that report the collection of biometric data from vulnerable or oppressed groups of people2.
In this case, he worried that Chinese security forces might have been involved in the work. One concern was that the blood was collected by being blotted onto reference cards — a method of choice for police forces. Moreover, in 2022, the international advocacy organization Human Rights Watch, among others, had reported that a mass DNA-collection programme of Tibetan populations was under way. Moreau also recognized one co-author from other papers he had flagged: Atif Adnan, who had previously been based in China and was now affiliated with the Naif Arab University of Security Sciences in Riyadh. For Moreau, this raised questions about links to security forces. Moreau urged the journal editors to investigate whether the Tibetans in the study had given informed consent.
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Read more: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00170-0