Ethical Issues

Modern biotechnology's genetic manipulations have delivered real public benefits — cheaper drugs, better fruits and vegetables, pest-resistant crops, indigenous cures for disease — but they have also generated persistent controversy, because tampering with genomes worries people who fear unforeseen or irreversible consequences. The most serious concern raised is biosecurity: that recombinant DNA techniques could, deliberately or by accident, be used to create novel microorganisms capable of triggering epidemics or environmental catastrophe, including their potential misuse as biological weapons. The chapter's own position on this is measured rather than alarmist — despite the public anxiety around genetic engineering, it judges the actual documented risks to be slight when weighed against the very substantial benefits biotechnology has already delivered, which is precisely why the regulatory a …