Category Archives: Uncategorized

Ethics & Artificial Life

From the Journal of New England Technology: George Church creates building block for ‘artificial life’ he man who mapped the human genome is now doing a major follow up by creating the components of synthetic life, offering potential biotechnology breakthroughs … Continue reading

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Ethics of Biotech Foods — Genetically Modified, Synthetic, and Cloned

Over on my Business Ethics Blog, I’ve blogged quite a bit about ethical issues in food biotechnology over the last 3 years. It thought it might be useful to gather some of those blog entries together, here, for the convenience … Continue reading

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Biotech Companies & Datamining

From the Milford Daily News: Biotech companies testify on data mining Drug makers and health insurance officials challenged a proposed law that would limit information about which medicines are the most popular in Massachusetts, saying that a ban on “data … Continue reading

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Ethics of DNA databasing

Check out this debate, from The Economist: The ethics of DNA databasing The claim being debated: “People’s DNA sequences are their business, and nobody else’s.” The participants in the debate are one of the world’s leading bioethicists, and one of … Continue reading

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Patent Application for Cloning Stem Cells

From the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Pitt researcher again pursues cloning patent A University of Pittsburgh stem cell researcher has renewed his efforts to win a patent on a process to clone human embryonic stem cells, despite lingering questions from his past … Continue reading

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Ethics Rankings for Bio-Pharma Companies

Check out this largely-reputation-based ranking of multinational health companies by Covalence: Covalence Ethical Ranking 2008 for the Health Care sector. (Released 2 months ago, in January.) Rank | Company 1. GlaxoSmithKline2. Johnson & Johnson3. Abbott4. Bristol Myers Squibb5. Boehringer Ingelheim6. … Continue reading

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Biotech’s Villains

From The Scientist: Biotech’s Baddies: More than 60 individuals have been blackballed by the FDA for criminal acts against the agency. Here are some of the worst offenders. No matter how bad things seem for the United States Food and … Continue reading

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“Cyclone Dairy”: A Spoof by Ben & Jerry’s

Ben & Jerry’s have owned up to it. They say they were aiming to raise awareness and they argue for a “national tracking system” for cloned animals. Bad idea. See the details @ my Business Ethics Blog: Ben & Jerry’s … Continue reading

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Funding Research on Comparative Effectiveness

From the Wall St. Journal: Coming Soon: Comparative Effectiveness Research for Biotech Which treatment works best for a given medical condition? The big stimulus package includes $1.1 billion in funding for so-called “comparative-effectiveness” research aimed at answering that question. Now … Continue reading

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“Hacking” Someone’s Genome

From the New Scientist: Special investigation: How my genome was hacked INTIMATE secrets hidden in your DNA could be stolen without you even realising. By taking a glass from which you have drunk, a “genome hacker” could obtain a comprehensive … Continue reading

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