Genomics research and its application to next-generation drug design has made significant progress in recent years. The use of medical databases is a requirement for many medical research groups, as was the case for the team led by Stefánsson in Iceland. A social and political debate has arisen on that island nation about the ethical and legal issues stemming from access to and use of this data,
... [Show full abstract] as well as the sale of the resulting products. This debate brings to the fore the need to make decisions regarding issues that affect us all.