Biotechnology is a rapidly advancing science that has the potential to revolutionize medicine and transform human abilities. Accompanying these positives are an underdiscussed category of threats to principles of human rights and equality. Although any technology might be used to inegalitarian ends, biotechnology has the capacity to beget…

In this article, the authors review some contemporary cases where biotechnologies have been employed, where they have had global implications, and where there has been considerable debate. The authors argue that the concept of dignity, which lies at the center of such documents as the 2005 Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights, the…

Costa Rica has rich ecological resources and has been a steady political force in turbulent Central America. Most recently, it has become a battleground between pro- and anti-genetically modified organism (GMO) political forces. This case study examines the roles of U.S.-based cotton ("Gossypium hirsutum" L.) seed companies, anti-GMO…

Discussions of socioeconomic liability and compensation must necessarily start from an understanding of the socioeconomic, legal, and scientific basis for identifying, assessing, managing, and apportioning blame for hazards related to innovations. Public discussions about the nature of the liability challenge related to genetically modified (GM)…

Since the end of the Cold War, federal funding for research at American universities has sharply decreased, leaving administrators searching for a new benefactor. At the same time, changes in federal policy permitting universities to patent, license, and profit from their discoveries combined with the emergence of new fields that thinned the lines…

The S-Star Trial Bioinformatics on-line course (www.s-star.org) is a global experiment in bioinformatics distance education. Six universities from five continents have participated in this project. One hundred and fifty students participated in the first trial course of which 96 followed through the entire course and 70 fulfilled the overall…