CHAPTER 13

Ethics and
Biotechnology

PowerPoint® Lecture by:

Lisa Werner
Pima Community College
 Chapter Contents

• 13.1 What Is Ethics?

• 13.2 Ethic and Biotechnology
• 13.3 Economics, The Role of Science,
and Communication

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 13.1 What Is Ethics?

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 13.1 What Is Ethics?

• Ethics identifies a code of values for our

actions
• Bioethics – area of ethics that deals with
the implications of biological research and
biotechnological applications on humanity,
especially regarding medicine
– Ask "Should this be done?" not "Can this be
done?"

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 13.1 What Is Ethics?

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 13.1 What Is Ethics?

• Approaches to Ethical Decision Making

– Hippocrates (c. 460–361 B.C.) might be first
bioethicist
– Hippocratic Oath – "do not kill," "to help, or at
least do no harm"

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 13.1 What Is Ethics?

• Approaches to Ethical Decision Making

– Two main viewpoints
• Utilitarian approach – states that something is
good if it is useful, and an action is moral if it
produces the "greatest good for the greatest
number"
• Deontological approach (Kantian approach or
duty ethics) – focuses on certain imperatives, or
absolute principles, which we should follow out of a
sense of duty and which should dictate our actions

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 13.1 What Is Ethics?

• Modern Bioethics
– Primarily the work of two ethicists in the 1970s
• Joseph Fletcher refined utilitarian or "situational
ethics"
• Paul Ramsey refined deontology or "objectivism"

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 13.1 What Is Ethics?

• Utilitarianism
– Emphasizes consequences, not intentions
– Analyze possible consequences to determine
course of action which will have the greatest
positive effect
– Disadvantages:
• Must assign a value to what is being considered
– Love and family not easily quantified
– Quantifiable things, such as material goods and life span
could be emphasized
• Who does the calculating and assigns the values?

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 13.1 What Is Ethics?

• Deontology (objectivism)
– There are some absolutes – definitive rules
that cannot be broken
– Deeply held convictions (may or may not be
religious)
– Advantage: firm guidelines, clear cut ethical
formula for decision making
– Disadvantage: rigid, may not take important
factors into account, or changes in values

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 13.1 What Is Ethics?

• There can be other approaches or blending

of the two main approaches
• Key objective is to gather information,
consider the facts, and make a thoughtful,
informed decision
• When debating contentious ethical issues,
respect and consider other viewpoints

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 13.1 What Is Ethics?

• Statistical probability of a bad event

occurring considered
• How negative is the possible effect?
• Risk assessments
– Considers the likelihood that something
harmful or unintended will happen in making a
decision

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 13.1 What Is Ethics?

• Ethical Exercise Warm-up

– A family pulls up to the Grand Canyon in their car. The
parents get out to check out a refreshment stand and
lock the car doors, leaving three young children
asleep in the back seat
– Brake not set, after they are some distance away, the
car slowly begins to roll toward the cliff
– You are the only one who notices
– A large man is standing close to where the car is
headed
– You could push him in front of the car, which would
stop is rolling, but he would either be crushed or
pushed over the edge. What would you do?

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 13.2 Ethics and Biotechnology

• Scientists met at a conference in Asilomar,

CA, in 1975 to discuss the safety and
possible consequences of recombinant
DNA techniques
– Determined that recombinant DNA technology
could be controlled in a way that would
preserve safety for humans and the
environment
– Established guidelines for different levels of
biosafety containment

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 13.2 Ethics and Biotechnology

• Cells and Products

– Issues of safety
• Carcinogenic or teratogenic?
• Ethical concern of harming rather than helping
– Issue of efficacy (effectiveness)
– Humane treatment of animals
– Tested in the appropriate species?
• Thalidomide was found safe in rodents, but later
found to cause birth defects in primates

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 13.2 Ethics and Biotechnology

• Genetically Modified (GM) Crops: Are You

What You Eat?
– Several areas of concern
• The plant itself (species integrity)
• Possible effect of altered plants on the ecosystem
and on overall biodiversity
– Effects on nontarget species
• How will the crop be used? Is it safe to feed to
animals? Is it safe for humans?
• Consideration of other genes or products present
in the GM crop

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 13.2 Ethics and Biotechnology

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 13.2 Ethics and Biotechnology

• GM Crops: Are You What You Eat?

– Social and economic questions arise
– More abundant food at reduced cost, medically
useful compounds are advantages
– Advantages may be offset by the potential
disadvantages

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 13.2 Ethics and Biotechnology

• Animal Husbandry or Animal Tinkering

– Raises many of the same ethical questions as
genetic modification of plants
• Effects of genetic modification on products
consumed by humans
– Is there a point at which the animal might
acquire enough human genes, cells, or
attributes that you would consider it human?
• Chinese scientists have created transgenic cows
that express human milk

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 13.2 Ethics and Biotechnology

• Synthetic Genomes and Synthetic Biology

– A synthetic genome has been transplanted
into a bacterial strain to change the recipient
microbe into the organism of the donor
microbe
– What should and should not be done with
synthetic organisms?

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 13.2 Ethics and Biotechnology

• The Human Question

– Informed consent – patients have the right to
be informed fully of the potential effects of the
experimental treatment, both good and bad
– Placebos – a safe but non-effective treatment
• Double-blind trials

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 13.2 Ethics and Biotechnology

• What Does It Mean to Be Human?

– Many ethical debates revolve around the
moral status of the human embryo
• Is it ethical to destroy early-stage human embryos
for research that may potentially treat thousands of
patients?
– Personhood – used to define an entity that
qualifies for protection based not on an
intrinsic value but rather on certain attributes,
such as self-awareness

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 13.2 Ethics and Biotechnology

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 13.2 Ethics and Biotechnology

• What Does It Mean to Be Human?

– Differing viewpoints on embryo research
• "Not a person, not a problem"
• A form of human life deserving profound respect
• An embryo has the same moral value as any other
member of the human species
– But, does any human cell deserve respect as a potential
person?

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 13.2 Ethics and Biotechnology

• What Does It Mean to Be Human?

– Are embryonic stem cells as good for potential
treatment as claimed?
– What about adult stem cells, or induced
pluripotent stem cells?
– Is research on embryos necessary to explore all
possible avenues for medical breakthroughs?
– Or do the alternatives make ethically contentious
research unnecessary?
– If we use embryos, are we embarking on a
slippery slope?

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 13.2 Ethics and Biotechnology

• Spare Embryos for Research Versus

Creating Embryos for Research
– Primary source of embryos for research is
excess embryos from in vitro fertilization
– Another potential source is the creation of
embryos for research purposes

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 13.2 Ethics and Biotechnology

• Should Humans and Other Animals Be

Cloned for Any Reason?
– Raises many of the same questions, with the
added complexity of the technique and the
potential identity of the clone
– Is creating a cloned embryo with the intent of
initiating a pregnancy another type of assisted
reproductive technology?

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 13.2 Ethics and Biotechnology

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 13.2 Ethics and Biotechnology

• Should Humans and Other Animals Be

Cloned for Any Reason?
– Ethical considerations of a human clone
include:
• How lack of relatedness to one parent might change
kinship and family relationships
• Expectations put on a clone once born to "live a
better life" than the person who was cloned
• Expectation to live up to a legacy achieved by the
donor of the genetic material

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 13.2 Ethics and Biotechnology

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 13.2 Ethics and Biotechnology

• Should Humans and Other Animals Be

Cloned for Any Reason?
– Creation of human embryos could lead to
matched embryonic cells for patients
• Could this lead to human commercialization,
making human life a commodity to be bought, sold,
and used?

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 13.2 Ethics and Biotechnology

• Patient Rights and Biological Materials

– Physicians do have a duty to disclose the
physician's personal interest in research and
potential economic matters unrelated to
patient treatment
• Informed consent
– Courts have ruled that donors of cells and
other biological materials do not have
ownership rights of their biological materials

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 13.2 Ethics and Biotechnology

• Genetic Information
– The Human Genome Project has led to the
identification of genes responsible for or
contributing to many disease states
– This knowledge has led to new strategies for
genetic testing and treating genetic disease
– Concern over the privacy of DNA information
• How genetic information could be used negatively
by employers, insurance companies, governmental
agencies, or through perceptions by the general
public

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 13.2 Ethics and Biotechnology

• Potential ethical questions from genetic information

– Should we test for genetic disorders for which there are
no effective treatments?
– What ethical obligations do physicians and scientists
have to divulge genetic testing results if analysis of a
person's DNA reveals mutations unrelated to the original
reasons for the test?
– How do we effectively communicate the results of
genetic tests and actual risks to the person being tested?
– Should it be possible for someone to be tested for non-
disease-related genets affecting such traits as
intelligence, skin color, height or weight?

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 13.2 Ethics and Biotechnology

• Potential ethical questions, continued

– Identifiability, the potential for disseminated
genetic data to be associated (or reveal the
confidential identity) of specific individuals, is
a major concern
– How can electronic medical record keeping
prevent identifiability even when patients
agree to share or release certain aspects of
their medical records?

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 13.2 Ethics and Biotechnology

• Genetic Information
– In 2008, Congress passed the Genetic
Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA)
– Prohibits discrimination based on genetics or
the improper use of genetic information in
health insurance and employment

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 13.2 Ethics and Biotechnology

• More or Less Human?

– Ethical considerations of gene therapy
• Informed consent, safety, and efficacy
• What about treatment of the possibility of genetic
disease?
– With a genetic disease, such as severe combined
immunodeficiency syndrome (SCID), the person will
develop the disease
– With a gene attribute, such as mutations in BRCA1, the
person only has an increased probability of disease
• Enhancement of individual genetics
• Gene doping
• Germline genetic engineering
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 13.3 Economics, The Role of Science, and
Communication
• Money plays a major role in research
decisions
• Patenting of intellectual property may be
lucrative, but may also pose ethical and
scientific problems
– Limited scientific access to gene for other
researchers
• Should scientists have unlimited freedom
for research?
• Accurate, honest communication is vital to
the success of science
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 13.3 Economics, The Role of Science, and
Communication

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc.