Abstract:
China is a country with a large population, rich resources and conspicuous environmental heterogeneity. The 56 nationalities of China boast great varieties in physiques, physiological data, hereditary phenotype, and genotype. Therefore, they are ideal resources for researches on endemic diseases, family disease genealogy, population migration, and genetic anthropology. However, due to the discrepancy in areas such as cultural custom, knowledge background, and ethical religion, the sample collection of human genetic resources and signing of informed consent are facing great challenges. This paper focused on the questions concerning the signing of informed consent that we should pay attention to during the sample collection of human genetic resources in the areas inhabited by minority nationalities, and expounded ten questions including "mode choice of informed consent", "procedures of informed consent in ethnic minorities", "informed consent should fully embody the characteristics and taboos of ethnic culture", hopefully, to provide references for researchers in this field.Researchers should abide by related procedures of administration management in accordance with ethical principles, respect cultural customs and ethnic religions of ethnic minority groups, and thereby make sure to complete the informed consent during sample collection of human genetic resources in ethnic minority groups in China.