Cover page
Biopiracy and Bioprospecting
(graphic)
Managing in a Global Economy
MSOM 305 Summer 2010
Special Presentation Paper
Team Group Project:
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1. intro (stephan done; someone please proofread and initial)
One of the hot topics currently worldwide besides the oil spill and the war in the Middle East are dealing with biopiracy and bioprospecting. Currently there are drastic measures being taken worldwide in various countries that are attempting to protect the indigenous knowledge of that country in the battle. International companies or even private entrepreneurs trying to gain a share of the natural resources found in foreign countries and market them for either financial gain or other causes. With the worldwide process of human globalization and the fusion of small companies into bigger ones. The amount research that is being spend on finding new medicines and new ways of improving daily life are highly sought after. This all boils down to protecting the knowledge of the elders that has been passed on from generation to generation and was often kept "secret" from western society and its companies. There are many different views about the legality and ethics that are being brought to daylight with some of these cases and the way certain companies are acting. In this paper we will try to give an overview and provide some case examples and give further inside into the world of Biopiracy and Bioprospecting.
1. bioprospecting vs biopiracy (seb- DONE,proofraad by stephan: sounds good)
1. Bioprospecting and Biopiracy both entail the extraction of biodiverse material or techniques unique to an indigenous area that have been patented and produced to mainstr...
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...wn to a moral issue as well as monetary problem. When a company is engaging in bioprospecting any profits or a even a part of the profits should be shared with the native country. By taking a natural resource and marketing it internationally without any compensation of even acknowledgement of its origin many companies would be committing plagiarism in college terms. However since this is way beyond any college campus it is simply theft and completely unacceptable in today's society. With the amount of international laws in place and the world growing together, any company engaged in bioprospecting needs to be able to respect the rights of the natives and share at least some of the profits if not even all of the profits with the native country to benefit them in some way.
1. references
1. http://www.kahea.org/gmo/pdf/bioprospecting_people.pdf
Monsanto Company are a public American multinational agricultural and agrochemical biotechnology corporation who leads in the production of genetically engineered seeds. Founded by John Queeny in 1901, the organization initially produced industrial chemicals such as sulphuric acid and plastics, including polystyrene and synthetic fibres. It was not until 1983, where the company was among the first to genetically modify a plant cell and conduct field trials of genetically modified crops. This scientific breakthrough shifted the company 's corporate focus towards the agricultural industry with the implementation of biotechnology. The company’s primary line of products consist of herbicides and genetically modified seeds.1
Ever-presently in the world there are occasions where research goes wrong, cell ownership reflects only selfishness and distrust for scientist, when they should be revered to the point where they would think of money. On the contrary, remarkable operations like the first successful adult human heart transplant by Christiaan Barnard would be complicated by tissue ownership in the instance where the patients are not able to speak, give consent. The issue of tissue ownership is a deep and vexing argument, but I find it that research in the name of humankind is more important than the "property" of one person.
This essay argues against Hanlon’s stance on that scientific animal testing and poultry farming violates animal rights, and vivisection is a not moral necessary to allow humans to discover cures for disease and to make drugs.
The more we know about genetics and the building blocks of life the closer we get to being capable of cloning a human. The study of chromosomes and DNA strains has been going on for years. In 1990, the Unites States Government founded the Human Genome Project (HGP). This program was to research and study the estimated 80,000 human genes and determine the sequences of 3 billion DNA molecules. Knowing and being able to examine each sequence could change how humans respond to diseases, viruses, and toxins common to everyday life. With the technology of today the HGP expects to have a blueprint of all human DNA sequences by the spring of 2000. This accomplishment, even though not cloning, presents other new issues for individuals and society. For this reason the Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications (ELSI) was brought in to identify and address these issues. They operate to secure the individuals rights to those who contribute DNA samples for studies. The ELSI, being the biggest bioethics program, has to decide on important factors when an individual’s personal DNA is calculated. Such factors would include; who would have access to the information, who controls and protects the information and when to use it? Along with these concerns, the ESLI tries to prepare for the estimated impacts that genetic advances could be responsible for in the near future. The availability of such information is becoming to broad and one needs to be concerned where society is going with it.
Since 2001, Hydro-Quebec were doing oil exploration on Anticosti Island.Seven years later, they had found nothing. In 2008, Petrolia, a private petroleum producer, sign an agreement with Hydro-Quebec to continue the oil exploration and about the money that Quebec will receive if they find oil. Petrolia discovered for $75 billion of petroleum and Quebec will receive a small amount of $2.3 billion. Petrolia has the right to extract oil everywhere on the island except in the two national parks. Should we take the risk to break a fragile and unique ecosystem in order to gain money on a short-term? To answer this ethical question, we will look at positive effects and negative effects of extracting oil from different regions that had decided to go into the oil industry. Those regions are closely related to our case and we will finish off with the possible solutions that are offers to Anticosti.
As society continues to evolve, and progress so do the needs of the population. New advancements in biotechnology, particularly the use of genetically modified organisms (GMO) have become a controversial topic in the early 21st century. What makes it controversial is that the process involves an organism whose genetic material has been modified due to genetic engineering techniques. Technology is used to alter the makeup of organisms such as animals, plants, or bacteria. GMO's are the source of many modified foods and are used widely in scientific research to produce other goods as well. (Wald, 2013) The controversy lies within the ethics, legal and social prospects.
Falkner, Robert. “The Global Biotech Food Fight: Why The United States Got It So Wrong.” Brown Journal Of World Affairs 14.1 (2007): 99-110. Academic Search Premier. Web. 2 Nov. 2011.
The patenting issue gained some attention when President Bill Clinton and Prime Minster Tony Blair jointly called for the release of raw genetic data into the public domain (CQ 405). I will argue in this paper that the aggressive competition among biotechnology firms to patent genes is impeding development being made in biomedical sector. The main problem with patenting genes is that companies are filing patents for strands of DNA they discover without fully knowing their functions (Kluger 51). The current attitude in the biotechnology sector seems to be, to gain exclusive access to as much of the human genome as possible first and then figure out the functions of the genes later. Despite the questionable attitude in the biotechnology sector, the current patent laws are allowing companies to continue with their practices. The patents laws are not able to deal with new complications that arise of from patenting genes. As I will argue in this paper, there is a pressing need to modify these laws to permit the HGP and its consequences to benefit everyone rather than lining the pockets of few corporations.
Morgan, S.Philip, Suzanne Shanahan and Whitney Welsh. "Brave New World: Philosophy, Politics, and Science in Human Biotechnology." Population Council (2005): 127-144.
Throughout history, human beings have struggled to achieve control over nature. Now, in the twentieth century, with all of the scientific advances in computers and medicine, humans have come closer than ever to reaching this ultimate goal. However, along with the benefits of these new and rapidly increasing scientific advancements come moral, ethical and social issues that need to be given consideration. The Computer Revolution has not only vastly improved communication and produced amazing amounts of information, but has raised questions of human rights, privacy and social implications. While medical research has achieved medical benefits not even conceivable in the past, it has also raised major ethical and moral issues. Humans must consider all of these things when making decisions or judgments about human control over nature.
Experimentations on humans, even though essential for scientific progress, pose many ethical questions where we ask ourselves if we should continue disposing human bodies in the name of medicine. We hold the same old concern about a man’s obsession with knowledge where a discovery for the good of the majority might become a justifiable reason for exploiting one human being for the good of all.
...t for illegally profit, the consequences will be unfavorable; therefore, a decision has to be made in order to protect the rights of the original owner and the responsible party must be held responsible for any infractions.
3. Macer, DRJ. 1990. Shaping Genes: Ethics, Law and Science of Using New Genetic Technology in Medicine and Agriculture. Obtained from the WWW: http://www.biol.tsukuba.ac.jp/~macer/SG14.html
The study of replication, transcription and translation of genetic material is known as molecular biology. Molecular biology is a bottom-up approach to understanding human life. Though the exploration of molecular biology began in the 1930s, it really took off in the 1960s after the uncovering of the structure of DNA. (Coriell Institute for Medical Research, n.d.) Today, molecular biology is shaping our understanding of diseases. Through this reflection journal, I seek to explore preventative and curative phenomena in medical biotechnology, and determine their impact on the political, social and economic spheres.
In the natural sciences there are always ethical norms that limit how knowledge can be produced. In the natural sciences, experimentation is an important method of producing knowledge but ethical judgments can limit the use of this method. There are areas that are considered unethical ...