BIOETHICS

Ethics includes a set of standards by which a community regulates its behaviour and decides as to which activity is legitimate and which is not.

Therefore, bioethics may be viewed as a set of standards that may be used to regulate our activities in relation to the biological world.

Biotechnology, particularly recombinant DNA technology, is focussed on' exploiting the biological world in ways that are usually unprecedented.

Therefore, biotechnology has been labelled variously, ranging from 'unnatural' to 'detremental, to 'biodiversity'.

The major bioethical concerns pertaining to biotechnology are summarised below:

(i) Use of animals in biotechnology causes great suffering to them.

(ii) When animals are used for production of pharmaceutical proteins, they are virtually reduced to the status of a 'factory'.

(iii) Introduction of a transgene from one species into another species violates the 'integrity of species'.

(iv) Transfer of human genes into animals (and vice-versa ) dilutes the concept of 'humanness'.

(v) Biotechnology is disrespectful to living beings, and only exploits them for the benefit of human beings.

(vi) Biotechnology may pose unforeseen risks to the environment, including risk to biodiversity.

These arguments may seem quite attractive.

It may be pointed out that biotechnology usually does only what was being done before.

However, biotechnologies do these things on a much larger scale and at a much faster rate.

Each society has to evaluate for itself the validity of these and other arguments related to biotechnology.

It also has to decide the kinds of activities that it considers acceptable, and those that it does not.

Going beyond the morality of such issues, the biological Significance of such things is also important.

Genetic modification of organisms can have unpredictable results when such organisms are introduced into the ecosystem.

Therefore, the Indian Government has set up organisations such as GEAC (Genetic Engineering Approval Committee), which will make decisions regarding the validity of GM research and the safety of introducing GM-organisms for public services.

The modification/usage of living organisms for public services (as food and medicine sources, for example) has also created problems with patents granted for the same.

BIOPATENT

A patent is the right granted by a government to an inventor to prevent others from commercial use of his invention.

A patent is granted for (a) an invention (including a product), (b) an improvement in an earlier invention, (c) the process of generating a product, and (d) a concept or design.

Initially, patents were granted for industrial inventions, etc.

But at present, patents are being granted for biological entities and for products derived from them ; these patents are called biopatents.

Primarily, industrialised countries, like U.S.A., Japan and members of European Union, are awarding Biopatents.

Biopatents are awarded for the following : (i) strains of microorganisms, (ii) cell lines, (iii) genetically modified strains of plants and animals, (iv) DNA sequences, (v) the proteins encoded by DNA sequences, (vi) various biotechnological procedures, (vii) production processes, (viii) products, and (ix) product applications.

There has been a great deal of opposition from various social groups to the patenting of life forms.

The nature of these objections is mainly ethical and political.

The arguments in favour of biopatents are primarily of increased economic growth.

Concept Builder

Intellectual property (IP) is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creation of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized and the corresponding fields of law.

Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols and designs.

Common types of intellectual property include copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and trade secrets in some jurisdictions.

Many biotechnology patents are very broad in their coverage.

For example, one patent covers 'all transgenic plants of Brassica family'.

Such broad patents are considered .morally unacceptable and fundamentally inequitable, since these would enable financially powerful corporations to acquire monopoly control over biotechnological processes.

They may, in the end, even come to control the direction of agricultural research, including plant breeding.

Such a position would pose a threat to the global food security.

Any organisations and multinational companies exploit and/or patent biological resources or bioresources of other nations without proper authorisation from the countries concerned; this is known as biopiracy.

The industrialised nations are rich in technology and financial resources but poor in biodiversity and traditional knowledge related to the utilisation of the bioresources.

In contrast, developing nations are poor in technology and financial resources, but are rich in biodiversity and traditional knowledge related to bioresources.

Biological resources or bioresources include all those organisms that can be used to derive commercial benefits.

Traditional knowledge related to bioresources is the knowledge developed by various communities over long periods of history, regarding the utilisation of the bioresources, e.g., use of herbs, etc. as drugs.

Often, this traditional knowledge can be exploited to develop modern commercial processes.

The traditional knowledge suggests the direction to be followed, and saves considerable time, effort and expenditure for their commercialisation.

Institutions and companies of industrialised nations are collecting and exploiting the bioresources, as follows,

(i) They are collecting and patenting the genetic resources themselves. For example, a patent granted in U.S.A covers the entire 'basmati' rice germplasm indigenous to our country.

(ii) The bioresources are being analysed for identification of valuable biomolecules. A biomolecule is a compound produced by a living organism. The biomolecules are then patented and used for commercial activities.

(iii) Useful genes are isolated from the bioresources and patented. These genes are then used to generate commercial products.

(iv) The traditional knowledge related to bioresources is utilised to achieve the above objectives. In some cases, the traditional knowledge itself may be the subject of a patent.

A west African plant, Pentadiplandra brazzeana produces a protein called brazzein, which is approximately 2,000 times as sweet as sugar.

In addition, brazzein is a low-calorie sweetener.

Local people have known and used the super-sweet berries of this plant for centuries.

But the protein brazzein was patented in U.S.A.

Subsequently, the gene encoding brazzein was also isolated, sequenced and patented in U.S.A.

It is proposed to transfer the brazzein gene into maize and express it in maize kernels.

These kernels will then be used for the extraction of brazzein.

This development could have serious implications for countries exporting large quantities of sugar.