This paper introduces the history and development of national ethics committee. The experiences of the US, UK, Germany, Holland, France, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Japan, Singapore, and Korea are presented. The operating models, missions, and functions of these national ethics committees, and the issues and reports they have discussed and published are reviewed. The development of two relevant ethics committees in Taiwan was also examined which reveals they are comparatively in a primitive and early stage of development. Learning from the experiences of other developed countries as reviewed and summarized in this paper should be very helpful for Taiwan's future development in this field.