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UPCOMING EVENTS Distinguished Ethics Speaker "Ethics is Ethics" Staci L. Ziants January 31, 2007 ------ Ethics Luncheon Forum "Breaking the Glass Ceiling" Gretchen R. Haggerty Major General February 8, 2007 Sponsored by:
Ethics Luncheon Forum "One Man's Opinion: Why Employees Must Come First" Le Herron May 23, 2007 Click here to request additional information about either event. RECENT EVENTS Ethics Luncheon Forum "Making the Right Choice... Timothy J. Noonan LINKS Beard
Center CONTACT US For more information, contact Rebecca Ellsworth at 412.396.4005 or beardcenter@duq.edu
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DUQUESNE
UNIVERSITY SPOTLIGHT |
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Ethics of Biotechnology: Just Because You Can Doesn't Mean You Should The Center for Biotechnology at Duquesne University began in 2001 as a research center with the charter to bring together scientists and foster multidisciplinary approaches to the complex challenges of biotechnology. The appointment of Alan W. Seadler as the Fritzky Chair in Biotechnology Leadership in 2005 and as director of the Center will allow the Center to reinvigorate its activities and broaden its scope to include commercialization of the science, as well as the ethical issues embedded in both life science and the corresponding industry. The long-term objective of the Center for Biotechnology is to evolve into an organization which supports the exploration of complex issues in biotechnology as it intersects with science, medicine, business, law, philosophy, and communications. But what is biotechnology? Quite simply biotechnology is the application of biological processes, molecules, cells, and living organisms to the production of commercially valuable products. Most importantly the technologies incorporated within biotech have moved from the traditional processing of brewing and baking and the historic methods for food production through plant and animal breeding to a new era of genetic engineering, transgenic organisms, cloning, and stem cell engineering. We are no longer restricted to the use of biological organisms in their native form, but can now mix and match genetic code much like a chemist in a laboratory. Biotechnology includes a broad number of value-added industries as diverse as pharmaceuticals, medical devices, food, energy, and industrial processes. The industry has the potential to transform our everyday lives with new products, plentiful food, abundant clean energy, and exciting new cures. Biotechnology has been highlighted by the media primarily for new medical advances, but the field also includes agricultural crops (corn, wheat, soybeans, and cotton) with over 222 million acres planted in 2005 world wide1, biofuels with 3.9 billion gallons of ethanol produced (US 2005)2, and industrial processes for the production of polyester plastics, improved paper products, clothing treatment, and detergents3. We can screen the newborn and measure certain disorders in the womb. We can tell the sex of the fetus and may someday be able to determine many more physical attributes. In the case of parents who are carriers of genetic disease, embryos from in vitro fertilization can be screened and shown to be free of disease before implantation. We have cloned valuable plants used in forestry and horticulture for nearly 50 years, cloned domestic animals, including house cats, sheep, cows, and primates, and are on the verge of cloning humans. The issue is no longer whether we can manipulate living organisms, but one of whether we should. The same genetic technologies that are used to modify agricultural crops and farm animals could also be used to modify humans. Indeed, genetic information itself represents detailed insight into the potential for development of an individual and their prospects for disease, information which could be used as a prognostic tool for the improvement of health or as a mechanism to label individuals as uninsurable or exclude them from employment. We are just beginning to witness the legal challenges to ownership of one’s own genetic makeup. These represent a few of the ethical challenges for biotechnology and include scientific, legal, and commercial decision making. Decision making requires a system which can embrace the advantages of the technology and its products while limiting the potential for abuse. One such framework was proposed by Margaret McLean4 in which she suggests that we should ask five questions as part of our decision making process in biotechnology whether we are addressing scientific research or industry conduct. These questions are: 1. What benefits or harms might be expected from the application
of a technology? The answers to these five questions can help provide direction for the scientist working on new tissue engineering mechanisms involving stem cells and for the business executive balancing the needs of investors against those of society at large. More importantly it provides a way of thinking about technology which could improve the lives of billions, provide substantial wealth, but could also be used to alter ourselves. The promise of biotechnology has stimulated many new companies, hundreds of new products and a flood of investment dollars as the industry continues to grow. It is a $311 billion industry which spends $18 billion on its science and technology5. Even today, more than twenty years into the latest wave of biotech commercialization, we are seeing a new flow of deals and product launches. The effort to produce new products using biological systems is not likely to ebb and it is now our responsibility to determine ways to deal with the resultant issues. Duquesne University and the Center for Biotechnology have a tremendous opportunity to develop not just an organization supporting scientific collaboration but to include our colleagues in ethics and philosophy to promote responsible decision making as a corollary of our research and commercial activities. Written by: 1James, C. 2005, “Global Status of Commercialized
Biotech/GM Crops.” ISAAA Briefs No. 34-2005. |
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