Issues and Controversies Concerned to the Practical Ethical Discourse of Biotechnology

Abstract

Over the past decade the biotechnological world has changed the way we lived and emerged from the research laboratory to the market and has reached to the consuming public and government. The biotechnological advancement is widely debated, contested, widely criticized and has been popularly controversial with regard to ethical uncertainty it confers.The potential risks associated with the assessment of biotechnological methods and bioindustry products, about whether and how bioethics should influence public policy is always sceptical. Advances in biotechnology and medical science, especially breakthroughs in cloning and stem cell research, organ transplants and the availability of embryological tissue for research, creation of new genomes and genetically engineered biologically active substances have raised great expectations for curing diseases, repairing damaged body tissue and organs, enabling conception at advanced age and selecting embryos based on genetic diagnosis. However, protection of the rights of the first 'pioneer' patients and prevention of the introduction of dangerous animal pathogens into the human population is an issue of major concern in this area. Risk assessments analyze the relative risks posed by possible toxic, pathogenic, and ecological effects of biotechnology and bioindustry. Bioethics examines broad issues such as animal rights and welfare, human testing, and the potential effects of genetically engineered species on other species and the environment. The inherent conflicts involved in how biotechnology develops as an industry and its stand in the ethical questions and public policy positions need to be discussed and adopted.