Bioethics and the commodification of biotechnology.
Although recent advances in biotechnology have brought with them a raft of ethical issues, other ethical challenges are arising not from new technologies, but rather from the expansion of biotechnology into "commodified" mass consumer applications, non-medical applications with no "purpose" other than entertainment or the satisfaction of consumer demand. In other words, commodity products targeted at a market that biotechnology does not currently exploit--the mass consumer market. This article will discuss two such examples of commodified biotechnology, the use of DNA sequence comparisons to construct genealogies; and the use of such comparisons to derive "ethnic" identities, and will conclude with a discussion of the possible consequences of such applications.
Scheinman
Andrew
A
Alston & Bird LLP.
D001709:Biotechnology / Q000191:economics / Q000941:ethics; D032821:Commodification; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000235:genetics; D005789:Genealogy and Heraldry; D033142:Genetic Services / Q000191:economics* / Q000941:ethics; D005821:Genetic Techniques / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D007585:Jews / Q000235:genetics; D010375:Pedigree