A New Approach to the Ethics and Public Policy of Biotechnology

Rana Ahmad
University of British Columbia, Department of Philosophy

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     Last modified: June 15, 2005
     Presentation date: 07/14/2005 9:15 AM in MACK 238
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Abstract
Session: Creating Public Policy

In Canada, biotechnology regulation and policy development is science-based where scientific knowledge and personnel constitute significant features of the relevant decision-making process. In order to succeed in the global market as an innovative leader in emerging sectors like biotechnology, proponents widely hold that regulatory procedures and policies must have the capacity to foster industrial competitiveness in addition to protecting its citizens from avoidable risks.
Biotechnology is a rapidly developing science with widespread and far-reaching implications for many areas of society such as agriculture, medicine, pharmacy and industry in terms of both risks and benefits. None of this is lost on the public and as a result, policy makers must take into account the opinions and concerns of society at large. However, a democratic ethics of biological technology faces many challenges. First, biotech is complex: it is, arguably, the most complex subject on our planet. Secondly, many people have a stake in biotech: it promises longer life, less disease and pain, and more choices in food and resources, perhaps at less cost, to more people. Finally, biotech induces a fierce rate of change forcing not only science to adapt to advances, but also individuals. These three problems make a democratic ethics of biotech difficult to achieve. Biotech is important to the public but difficult to comprehend, while our accepted norms quickly show their age under the pressures of rapid change. In order to create effective policies for new technologies, public opinion is a necessary element in the process.

Surveys and focus groups are well known methods for ascertaining public perceptions and opinion. The general view is that such tools provide reasonably accurate reflections of public values, and that the norms employed by people to make decisions are fixed. However, recent evidence suggests that social norms on issues involving breakthrough scientific advances (e.g. biotechnology) are not as static as originally believed. Preferences and beliefs change when people are presented with new options, and when the likely consequences of their choices are unknown. When addressing the ethics of biotechnology, philosophers usually do not include the findings of social scientists.This poses a further challenge to policy makers who attempt to identify and incorporate public views into crucial decisions concerning new technologies. This paper discusses the problem with traditional methods of generating information about public opinion and offers a possible solution. There is an alternative way of gathering such data, which takes into account the dynamic nature of social norms in response to biotechnology and its applications. Using the occurrence of Beta-Thalassemia in Cyprus during the 1970’s and asking people today how they would react to some of the policies implemented by the Cypriots using genomics to deal with the problem, it becomes apparent that difficult decisions about unfamiliar technologies are norm-dependent. If new technologies demand new methods for creating policies, then it is imperative to find solutions that the older, more traditional methods currently face. Additionally, philosophical and ethical analysis could greatly benefit from incorporating the methods used by social scientists.

Multiple Paper Session:
Other papers in this session:
The First Clone War: Creating a National Recombinant DNA Policy in the United States
The Politics of Mass Sterilization: Eugenics, Public Policy, and the Emergence of the Worldwide Population Control Movement
Critical assessment of the impact of ELSI programs