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: risk
Pausing Bird Flu Studies
Breaking news, from Nature: the principle investigators of the recent avian flu transmission studies (along with a couple of dozen co-authors) have publicly vowed to “pause” their research for 60 days. What’a really interesting, though, are their reasons. They want … Continue reading
Posted in dual-use, ethics, health, regulation, risk, virology
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Canada’s Proposed “Bill C-474”
A “private members bill” currently before Canada’s parliament will, if passed, require that “an analysis of potential harm to export markets be conducted before the sale of any new genetically engineered seed is permitted” in Canada. (FYI, a bill that … Continue reading
Posted in agriculture, GMO, regulation, risk
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Ethics, Policy, and Synthetic Biology
By Jef Akst, writing for The Scientist: Q&A: Ethics chair on synthetic biology The Scientist spoke with chair Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania, about the commission’s conclusions that, despite the potential risks of creating synthetic organisms, the … Continue reading
Posted in ethics, regulation, risk, synthetic biology
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Pre-Pregnancy Genetic Testing
A California company called Counsyl Inc. is the latest contender in the effort to push genetic testing into the consumer mainstream. See this story, by Michael Totty for the WSJ: A Genetic Test for Prospective Parents Proponents of universal prepregnancy … Continue reading
Posted in embryos, ethics, genetic testing, IVF, risk
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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
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