Modern biotechnology signals the rise of new Eugenics Good Genes Movement. 'Female sperm' and 'male eggs' from skin cells may be possible. Katsuhiko Hayashi of Kyoto University in Japan and professor Mitinori Saitou used skin cells from mice to create primordial germ cells or PGCs. These cells were then developed into both sperm and eggs.
Biotechnology has surpassed the limits of human endeavour and enterprise. Life is no longer in God's domain. Man is entering the territory of the Almighty - rajrathnamvp.
“It is only a matter of time before human-nonhuman chimeras are successfully developed, perhaps as a source of organs for humans,” Julian Savulescu, director of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics. Juan Carlos Izpisúa, a Spanish scientist who is part of the team that created the monkey-human mix, believes that ethical standards may need to be rethought. “History shows us that over time our moral standards mutate, like our DNA,” he told El País. It happened, for example, with in vitro fertilisation.
The impact of biotechnology is enormous, encompassing the physical and the metaphysical world. Religious pigheads are obstructing everything that seems to take away the powers of God. Though biotechnology will help improve the quality of life, the ethical issues raise a lot of debate and opposition. The cultural debates over biotechnology are because of the fears deep within the society's psyche. The media frenzy over surrogacy, cloning and organ transplantation. Because of detection of genetic predispositions an individual's prospects in life can be figured out at birth. The ethical questions arise as to privacy and the impact of such knowledge on the individual's life. What is required is vigilance not paranoia.
Biotechnology and Globalization -- Center for
International Development
Devoted to the role of agricultural biotechnology on the economies throughout the world
with focus is placed on developing coutries.
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