Public debate enables fundamental questions about developments in biology and medicine to be the subject of open and collective discussion and dialogue. As a potential source of important benefit for human health, such developments can also have implications which raise concerns related to inter alia autonomy, privacy, integrity and non-discrimination, as well as equity of access to health care. Such implications are questions not only for experts or authorities but for individuals, groups and society as a whole.

The Guide was developed by the Committee on Bioethics (DH-BIO) on the basis of Article 28 of the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (ETS No 164), the only international legally binding instrument addressing the protection of human rights in biomedicine.

The Guide is primarily addressed to government officials, public authorities, national ethics committees and other relevant educational and academic institutions and organisations. 

The Guide highlights the need for public debate, how to prepare for it, ways to make it effective and meaningful.