The ethics of knowledge production – Pacific challenges

Abstract

The impact on Pacific peoples of developments in genetic science and the actions of researchers and companies working in the life sciences have prompted increasing discussion about the politics and ethics of knowledge. People in the Pacific have also taken up recent opportunities to discuss initiatives like the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights. This article reviews the responses of participants in a number of different gatherings on ethics‐related issues in the Pacific. It explores the importance of Pacific ideals of collective rights and the need to recognise the value of indigenous knowledge systems, particularly the way this knowledge has been collectively produced, shared and used. What is distinctive about particular Pacific cultures, what is shared by Pacific people and the negotiated spaces between indigenous thinking and western science are highlighted in this introduction to articles that offer Pacific challenges to established thinking on the ethics of knowledge production.