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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Category Archives: genes
Cloned Horses Can Now Compete
The International Federation for Equestrian Sports (Fédération Équestre Internationale, or FEI) has announced a reversal of its previous decision to ban cloned horses from competition. The FEI’s statment, quoted here, includes the following: “The FEI will not forbid participation of … Continue reading
Posted in cloning, ethics, genes, sport
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No Gene Patents, Please: US Dept of Justice
Needless to say, this story is rather a big deal. By Andrew Pollack, for the NYT: U.S. Says Genes Should Not Be Eligible for Patents Reversing a longstanding policy, the federal government said on Friday that human and other genes … Continue reading
Biotech, Innovation & Clinical Trials
Here’s a blog entry, over on the Research Ethics Blog, that ought to be of interest to people interested in biotech: A Tale of Two Cousins: Tragedy and the Clinical Trial Recently the New York Times published a story about … Continue reading
Posted in clinical trials, ethics, genes, health, pharmaceuticals
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GM Rice and Intellectual Property
Are GM crops aimed at helping farmers, or corporate shareholders? Generalizing in that regard is probably a mistake. See, for instance, this story from The Sydney Morning Herald, Group produces GM rice A team of Australian scientists has genetically modified … Continue reading
Posted in genes, GMO, patents
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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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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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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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Biotech Ethics 