- In the context of the Statement, an ethical principle expresses an agreed value that guides actions to achieve the best possible ethical outcome in a given set of circumstances.
- Ethical principles place one’s own actions in a broader context: collectively, ethical
principles provide a common analytical framework to consider the value of things
other than one’s own interests. For example, the value of persons other than
ourselves who demand respect, irrespective of out attitude towards them or how
they figure in our own preferred actions.
- It is possible to find ethical principles described in other documents and publicationsthat have a different focus and, in the wider study of ethics, ethical principles that follow a specific philosophical approach. In this Statement, the ethical principles consider human interests and relate to the specific human activity.
- As individuals view the Statement, there may be disagreement about the meaning and weight that should be given to a particular principle on its own or relative to another. The Statement highlights fundamental ethical principles that should be taken into consideration by any person involved in biotechnology activities in order to guide those activities and to assess if those activities are ethical.
What is biotechnology?
- We take what we know about living organisms and how they function and apply
biotechnology to make new products, to alter properties of existing products
and to develop new industrial processes.
- Biotechnology as it has been practiced for centuries has provided the world with —
• beer and wine through the use of yeasts for alcohol fermentation
• cheese through the use of cultures for cheese production; and
• improved characteristics of plants through planned breeding.
- Modern industries that use biotechnology include:
• human and animal healthcare to produce pharmaceuticals, diagnostics tests
and enhance and control fertility
• plant and animal breeders seeking improved characteristics for production
• pollution control, land bio-remediation, water treatment, minerals extraction
and processing, species conservation and pest management
• food and beverage processors using starters, enzymes, and fermentation in
the production of foodstuffs
• industries involved in the further processing of agricultural products,
bio-processing and generation of industrial enzymes; and
• energy production using biofuels.
- Today, a common meaning of biotechnology has developed that includes specific
scientific methodologies: gene technology, cloning, genomics, proteomics, DNA
sequencing, transgenics, bio-remediation amongst others.
- Some of the techniques employed in modern biotechnology rely on an understanding
of how living organisms function at the cellular level. The cells of all living things
contain DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), the chemical basis for the genetic code
common to all living organisms. The DNA in all genes contains the instructions
(code) for proteins that are produced during an organism’s life. These proteins then
impact the features and functions of that organism.
- A more recent use of biotechnology is genetic engineering and genetic modification.
These terms, used interchangeably or collectively described as gene technology,
describe a set of scientific tools for manipulating genes; genes can be copied, added
to, deleted from or altered and then transferred between organisms giving the
recipient organism a new and desired feature. Researchers using gene technology
have a greater ability to direct features and functions of organisms than would have
been possible by other means, such as traditional breeding.