The various faces of genomics in Islamic bioethics

The Islamic bioethical discussions on genomics have been predominantly interdisciplinary, involving both Muslim religious scholars and biomedical scientists. These discussions started in the 1990s, as part of their ethical reflections on the then new Human Genome Project (HGP). Throughout the span of more than three decades, genomics had no one single face and various perspectives were introduced in the Islamic bioethical discourse. We give here an analytical review of the key discussions and various perspectives on genomics in the Islamic tradition, and examine how the advocates of each perspective argued that the face they defended was the true face of genomics.