Bio-Ethics
By: Travis Redman
4/3/00
The issue of bio-ethics presents a myriad of new dilemmas; all of which have
arisen in the recent past, and must be addressed in the near future. The majority
of these questions stem from the introduction of new, genetically-engineered
organisms. These organisms, or at least many of them, are created in
laboratories, by gene splicing, swapping, etc. and essentially, these
scientists are playing god, creating biological entities as they want them.
This is the main source of the controversy.
In more developed countries where genetically engineered disputes may ensue,
the trend is total protection through patents and other regulatory and
monitoring agencies. These problems come about from identification of the new
bio-engineered organisms, and this approach allows the industries and
entrepreneurs to recover the enormous costs involved in the research and
development of genetic engineering. It promotes the development of products to
benefit society, and it allows access for a larger genetic bank for analyses,
experimentation, and investigation. There is a second side to this coin-it
means that the researchers can assert an excessive price to their ‘product' while
eliminating any competition for a given period of time. It allows for copies of
living things to be made easily and inexpensively. This happens outside the
United States, where strict regulations are not in continuity with those
pirating compact discs in Japan, bottling Coca Cola in India, etc. No countries
spend any monetary amount comparable to the over 300 million dollars to run the
patent and trademark office, as the U.S. does.
Another observation can be made that because of the time involved and the cost
that the free flow of information is inhibited between researchers.
These arguments all take place under the umbrella that "Life forces can be
controlled by ownership." Many countries take the view that these genetic
products are not intellectual property, and as such, not subject to the
conventional patent laws. These properties should not be protected and belong
to society as much as any organism which has naturally evolved through normal
processes.
GATT (General Agreement on Trade and Tariff) has attempted to address this
issue through a larger commercial / trade package; however, this is a position
in which very little agreement among parties is found. In this case, the
outcome will most likely be the elimination of the issue in favor of reaching a
trade agreement which has acceptability throughout the economic community. No
matter which aspect of the bio-ethical issue is being analyzed, the controversy
continues throughout the field. The numbers of these problems mounts
exponentially as science evolves; however, it is not soon that we will see the
resolution of but a very small percentage of these problems regardless of the
constantly augmenting quantities of them.