The social, moral, ethical, legal and political implications of today's biological technologies: an Indian point of view.

The last 50 years have seen an increasing emphasis on ethical, moral, social, legal, political and economic implications of science for reasons that are discussed in this article. Biotechnology has been no exception to this trend. Areas of biotechnology where the above implications have been important, are briefly described. Ethical and related issues in today's biology-based technologies are discussed with special reference to India. Examples of technological exploitation within a country, or of one country by another, using modern biology-based technologies are given. The possible implications of one new and emerging biology-based technology are discussed. It is concluded that a well-informed and knowledgeable society is the only assured insurance against possible misuse of biology-based technologies of today and tomorrow, including their use for the exploitation of people. The recent decision of the Prime Minister of India to set up a National Knowledge Commission is mentioned in this context.

On the critical assessment of the impact of the recent European Union Tissues and Cells Directive.

In this commentary it is argued that David Mortimer's contention (Mortimer, 2005) that 'there are grave problems with the feasibility, effectiveness and likely adverse impact of applying clean room and air quality standards to assisted conception facilities, especially IVF laboratories', as envisaged in the European Union's Tissues and Cells Directive (2004), is fully justified. As he says, 'effective regulations need to recognize what is impossible, what is possible and what is realistic'. The Directive, while necessary in principle, does not take into account the fact that what may appear to be ideal from a narrow technical point of view may, in fact, in a larger context, defeat its purpose by actually being harmful.

Response to 'No country is an island: comment on the House of Commons report Human Reproductive Technologies and the Law'.

Edgar Dahl supports sex selection, e.g. through separation of X and Y sperm or through PGD. It is argued in this commentary that while such sex selection would seem reasonable for balancing a family (wanting a daughter if one already has a son, or vice-versa), it is likely to lead to skewing of female-male ratios, not only in India where it is already as low as 0.8 in certain parts, but possibly also in Great Britain as male chauvinism is not a thing of the past anywhere.

Ethical issues in modern biological technologies.

Today's biology-based technologies have emerged from a historical imperative and as an inevitable consequence of developments in modern biology beginning in the last half-century. They can be classified into almost 30 different areas, ranging from the use of gene therapy for human beings, enzyme engineering, stem cells and cloning, to marine biotechnology, bioinformatics, nanotechnology and biological warfare among many others. Many of them have major sociopolitico-economic, moral, ethical and legal implications. They include genetic engineering, gene therapy, tissue culture, stem cell work, the new DNA technologies, commercialization of traditional plant-based drug formulations, assisted reproduction techniques, cloning technologies, organ transplantation, bioinformatics, and biological weapons. Examples of the ethical implications of several of these items will be considered. They will be assessed with special reference to ethical implications in respect of assisted reproduction techniques, of worldwide importance today, particularly for a country such as India.