Welcome to the National Bioethics Committee(NBC)

This is Bong-ok Kim, chairperson of the NBC.

The 6th National Bioethics Committee (hereafter referred to as the NBC) has launched on June 12, 2021.

The NBC as a presidential committee has been established in 2005 based on the Bioethics and Safety Act in order to ensure bioethics and safety and contribute to health and improvement of the quality of life for the people. Along with rigorous efforts of former members NBC has been engaged in deliberation to find a prudential way to address various social changes and challenges from emerging biomedical sciences and rapidly developing biotechnology.

Recently, the development of emerging biomedical sciences and biotechnology has been accelerated and their impacts on the society have been enormous, which raise social issues and human concerns. The demand for public deliberation and proper bioethical policies asks for the establishment of new public bioethics.

Therefore, with the vision of ‘a society that establishes and realizes public bioethics based on human dignity and human rights’ in 「the Basic Policies on National Bioethics and Safety」 announced in December 2020, the 6th NBC will carry out the following activities:

First, we will enlarge opportunities for active engagement and communication of social members (citizens, researchers, etc.) as responsible agents along the way of making bioethics-related policies and forming social norms. At the same time, we will support and empower them so that they can conduct sufficient deliberations based on diverse bioethics perspectives.

Second, we will manage unpredictable risks of emerging biomedical sciences and biotechnology due to their complexity and uncertainty through objective evaluation and monitoring based on accurate information. With appropriate safety measures for each technical characteristics we will build and support the environment in which researches can be conducted and managed without causing unnecessary conflicts or concerns.

Finally, we will continue to make efforts to promote the democratic deliberation and mature public bioethics based on the common values of "respect for human life" and "human dignity" and implement them in all areas.

Please keep an eye on the activities of the 6th NBC. We would appreciate your active participation and continuos support. Thank you.

Kim, Bong-ok
Chairperson of the 6th National Bioethics Committee