Biotech Ethics BLOG
This blog is about ethical issues in the biotechnology industry. That includes all 3 main areas of that industry: health biotech, food biotech, and industrial biotech. (The last two are particularly important, and don't get enough attention.)
Unlike my Business Ethics Blog, this one will focus on aggregating information, rather than offering much commentary.
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The Business Ethics Blog (by Chris MacDonald)
The Research Ethics Blog (by Nancy Walton and Chris MacDonald)
Genethics.ca (by Bryn Williams-Jones)
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Ethics for the Biotech Industry (my scholarly research)-
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Author Archives: Chris MacDonald
Oil-Eating Microbes
Most people probably don’t know that there are naturally-occurring microbes that make their living by eating naturally-occurring hydrocarbons (hydrocarbons are organic compounds that consist entirely of hydrogen and carbon, and that are found in crude oil). The existence of such … Continue reading
Posted in environment, genes, industrial biotechnology, risk
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Imitating Evolution
Someone (I can’t recall the source) once said that rather than envy the creative power of nature, we ought to emulate it. Genetic algorithms have, for a couple of decades now, allowed scientists and engineers to harness the power of … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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Berkeley Backs Down on Gene Tests for Students
I blogged here a few months ago about UC Berkeley’s plan to do (voluntary) genetic testing on this year’s entire first-year class. (See: Genetic Testing and the College Freshman) Now the university is backing down. Or rather, the university has … Continue reading
DTC Genetic Tests: Justifying Regulation
Regulation and ethics aren’t the same thing. But when done properly, good regulation is rooted in good ethical reasons. If we want to think in a constructive way about existing or potential regulations, we need to consider the values and … Continue reading
Posted in ethics, genes, genetic testing, regulation
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Meat and Milk from the Offspring of Clones
Over at my Food Ethics Blog, I’ve got a new (short) posting about cloning animals for food: Milk and Meat from the Offspring of Clones. (Not surprisingly, given that this is 2010, there’s turning out to be a fair bit … Continue reading
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Venter on the Past & Future of Genomics (etc.)
From Der Spiegel: Interview with Craig Venter: ‘We Have Learned Nothing from the Genome’ The whole thing is worth reading, but here are a few snippets I found interesting. First, here’s Venter being dismissive about fears related to genomic knowledge: … Continue reading
Posted in Craig Venter, ethics, genes, Human Genome Project
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The Death of the UK’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Agency
Government involvement in biotech takes many forms, and government agencies take a variety of shapes and play a range of roles. Direct regulation — setting standards, prohibiting this and that — is not the only option. So when evaluating the … Continue reading
Posted in embryos, Europe, IVF, regulation
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Europeans & Cloned Food Animals
Check out this blog entry over at my new Food Ethics Blog: Cloned Animals, Food, Ethics. The short version: attempts by European Parliamentarians to ban food from cloned animals was predictable, and based on what look to be pretty terrible … Continue reading
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Uncontrollable Risks of Genetic Testing
A lot has been written about the risks & mostly theoretical & associated with genetic testing. Genetic information is highly personal, often difficult to understand, subject to considerable interpretation, and of widely variable predictive power. Two main kinds of worries … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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Genetic Testing and the College Freshman
Gone are the days when a college student’s first exposure to genetics came after the first day of school, in a biology class. U.C. Berkeley is offering (or should I say “offering”) genetic testing to a few thousand freshmen this … Continue reading
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Biotech Ethics 