Just like how some computer businesses or viruses started in a teenagers' garage or room; biotechnology may follow. Due to the cost of hardware falling and genetic information multiplies, bio-hackers are surfacing. Teenagers can't quite shell out the $50,000 for second hand equipment and basic home-biotechnology lab, but prices are falling. There are a myriad of biology graduates that have graduated and are interested in this. Some have already had success, Agribiotics, which is an agricultural biotechnology firm, was sold for $24 million and it grew from a home run business. A reader from the magazine Biotech Hobbyist, brags that he has created a weed resistant to Roundup. More tell of cloning trees and creating skin-tissue cultures.
As interesting as this all sounds, it scares me to know that people have the capabilities to do such things in there homes. With new technology comes the questions of ethical issues and how to handle restraints. Should they're be laws against these home labs? Could this be hurting our economy and/or our environment? Should there be penalties for wrongdoing?
I think we should allow innovation and freedom, even with personal labs. The law should strongly encourage personal responsibility however. Again, I think it's best to be ahead of the curve, lest the politicians take over in a panic.
2 comments:
Although I see your perspective in this, I can't help but feel that this is what is wrong with today's society. Laws have already been established in order to draw a line and to create a basis as to what is moral and what isn't. People should be expected to understand and practice such natural moral values. Harm to others and to the environment have also been established for years. So laws against harm to the environment and other living animals have been addressed. Some people (mainly students with a passion for biotechnology) are trying to create new companies, techniques and so on. A self fund garage lab may be the one who finds a vaccine or treatment for biowarfare and another lab may find a new strain of bacteria FOR biowarfare and use it as a threat. If you assume that someone will use biotechnology with wrong intentions, then that will be all you see. Im not justifying any illegal activity or malpractice of science but I am trying to say that limitations should stay where they are, and those who decide to be harmful or break pre-exiting laws should be punished.
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