Ethics of Biotechnology

Biotechnology is broadly defined as any kind of technology that makes use of living systems to create products and solve problems. As technology in the biological science realm has taken off at an increasingly fast rate over the past few decades, countless ethical questions surrounding the use of these technologies have been raised and debated. Ethics is defined by the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics as standards of right and wrong that underlie what people "should" do in different scenarios. In the context of biotechnology, points of ethical concern have been raised in six main realms: safety, liberty, justice, environmental nature, human nature, and religious beliefs. The lines dividing what is right and wrong have been blurred by modern technological advancements involving topics such as gene editing, customer-facing genetic testing, and stem cell research. This article will focus on some of the ethical concerns at the forefront of the debates within the modern biotechnology industry.

Background

While "modern" biotechnology has been associated with relatively recent developments in science and technology in the past few decades, humans have been using biological systems to develop products and assist processes for thousands of years. The first examples of biotechnology in civilization include early food science and bread-making, alcohol fermentation, and food preservation. The development of an updated definition of biotechnology in the modern era is a product of 20th century advancements in recombinant DNA technology, or genetic engineering. Genentech was established in 1976 by Robert A. Swanson and Herbert W. Boyer, and is largely credited as the frontrunner pharmaceutical company to commercialize DNA editing technology