Toward Differentiated Biological Citizenship: Genetic Controversies and the Creation of Taiwan’s Collective Informed Consent Law for Indigenous Peoples

Abstract

Since the 1990s, Taiwan has promoted genomics as part of its shift to a knowledge economy. However, controversies concerning Indigenous genetics and genomics extend into political, sociocultural, and historical dynamics. This has prompted a movement among Taiwan's Indigenous activists, culminating in legal reforms that made Taiwan the first country to enact legislation mandating collective informed consent for Indigenous peoples in 2016. This article proposes the concept of 'differentiated biological citizenship' to explain how Taiwan's Indigenous peoples have developed bioethics governance. First, the article analyzes the origin, dynamics, and main events of this controversy, arguing that it should be understood in the context of globalization and Taiwan's evolving identity politics. Second, the article traces how different actors (scientists, Indigenous elites, and government officials) negotiate a series of actionable strategies and develop collective informed consent based on the law. Finally, examining such issues as the relationship between trust and distrust and the power inequality between Indigenous and Han peoples, this article also investigates the difficulty in practicing collective consent as a governance model for Indigenous communities.