Description
Book SynopsisA globalization of innovation has produced the most massive spurt in biotechnology in world history. Businesses, universities, and non-governmental organizations are collaborating to produce a science-industrial complex in biotechnology. Using case studies of stem cell research, cloning, genetically modified food, in-vitro fertilization, and chimeras in a number of Eastern and Western countries around the world, I argue that much of this biotech activity is global in nature and independent of state control. This shift in the relative influence of state and non-state actors has led to the virtual deregulation of biotechnology and the liberation of innovation from geo-political constraints. These trends post a number of interesting social, political, and ethical issues for the contemporary period and suggest the need to rethink how controversial moral issues are handled by the science-industrial complex.
Trade Review"Darrell West gives us a lucid guidebook to the ethical and policy conflicts in global biotechnology." - John A. Robertson, University of Texas Law School"In a globalized world there are surprisingly few efforts to present a multisectorial and multicultural analysis of biotechnology. Darrell West has succeeded in presenting a stimulating analysis of the way different cultures in geography and profession have constructed a public policy that will shape the 21st and bio-century." - Darryl Macer, Ph.D., Regional Adviser in Social and Human Sciences for Asia and the Pacific, Regional Unit for Social and Human Sciences in Asia and the Pacific (RUSHSAP)
Table of ContentsPreface * The Globalization of Innovation * Science-Industry Collaboration * In-Vitro Fertilization and Assisted Reproductive Technology * Genetically Modified Food * Cloning * Stem Cell Research * Chimeras * Whose Ethical Standards?
