Biological Ethics
Bioethics
• The study of controversial ethics brought about by
advances in biology and medicine.
• Bioethicists are concerned with the ethical
questions that arise in the relationships among:
– Life sciences, biotechnology, medicine, politics, law,
and philosophy.
• It also includes the study of the more commonplace
questions of values
Bioethics
• Also needs to address emerging biotechnologies
that affect basic biology and future humans.
• These developments include:
– cloning, gene therapy,
human genetic engineering,
astro-ethics and life in space,
and manipulation of basic
biology through altered DNA, and proteins.
Science has Improved our
Lives!!???
• Antibiotics--Penicillin
• Vaccines--Polio, Measles, Smallpox, CoViD?
• Cell Biology--Cancer Research
• Genetics--Basis for Disease
• Physics--Electricity!
• Engineering--Roads, Bridges, Buildings,
Planes, Trains, Bikes
• Fermentation--Civilization!
Science has also opened a
veritable “Pandora’s Box”
• Bio-warfare-, Anthrax letters, CoVid?
• Nuclear Weapons--Does North Korea
really have them?
• Genome--Insurance issues, Selecting
offspring?
Ethical thinking
• What benefits could
come from nuclear
power?
• At what cost?
• At what risk?
• Remember Chernobyl?
Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster
• April 26, 1986 in the Ukraine,
• It is regarded as the worst accident
in the history of nuclear power.
• A plume of radioactive fallout drifted
over parts of the western Soviet
Union, Eastern and Western Europe,
Scandinavia, the British Isles, and
eastern North America. Large areas
of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia were
badly contaminated
• Resulted in the evacuation and
resettlement of over 336,000 people.
About 60% of the radioactive fallout
landed in Belarus, according to
official post-Soviet data
Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster
• Two hundred people were hospitalized
immediately, of whom 31 died (28 of
them died from acute radiation
exposure).
• Most of these were fire and rescue
workers trying to bring the accident
under control
• At least 8,000 people died, most from
radiation-related diseases.
• About 2,000 people have been
diagnosed with thyroid cancer and
between 8,000 and 10,000 cases are
expected to develop over the next 10
years.
Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster
Rights
• Do animals have rights?
• Nearly all new drugs,
cosmetics, food additives,
new forms of surgery are
tested on animals first
• Many societies have
historically denied even the
most basic of rights to
classes of persons on the
basis of economics, gender,
race, ethnicity, or religious
beliefs
Experiments without consent
• Humans as experimental subjects
• Experiments on twins (The twins of
Auschwitz)
• Bone, muscle, and nerve transplantation
experiments
• Head injury experiments
• Freezing experiments
• Malaria experiments
• High Altitude and pressure experiments
Experiments without consent
• 1932 The Tuskegee Syphilis Study
begins.
• 200 African-American men infected with
syphilis are never told of their illness, are
denied treatment, and instead are used as Charlie Pollard
human guinea pigs in order to follow the
progression and symptoms of the disease.
• 95% all subsequently die from syphilis,
their families never told that they could
have been treated.
Herman Shaw
Genetically modified crops
• All plant characteristics, such as size, texture, and
sweetness, are determined at the genetic level.
• Also:
– The hardiness of crop plants.
– Their drought resistance.
– Rate of growth under different soil conditions.
– Dependence on fertilizers.
– Resistance to various pests and diseases.
What people think of using GM Plants!
• Survey carried out by:
– The Scientist Magazine.
• Feb 2004, No/15401
• 302 readers responded to survey
• Yes, a small group, as there are
seven billion people on the planet
• What to YOU think?
Genetically modified crops
• Issues:
• Destroying ecosystems – tomatoes are now
growing in the artic tundra with fish antifreeze
in them!
• Destroying ecosystems – will the toxin now
being produced by pest-resistance stains kill
“friendly” insects such as butterflies.
• Altering nature – should we be swapping genes
between species?