Bioethics and the Challenge of Technological Change

Abstract

Today I aim to look at legal responses to developments in Biotechnology and Bioethics. These areas of science are rapidly developing and the law is struggling to keep up with the developments. Let us consider, first of all, what is the difference between the two terms. Bio (as defined by the 'Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary' 1987) means 'life' or 'a/living beings'. When combined with technology it is the technology that affects and deals with life. Some more recent developments in biotechnology, the technology related to life and death, involve organ transplants; In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF); genetic engineering; and the extension of life through artificial means. Bioethics, on the other hand, combines 'bio' with ethics (ie 'relating to morals'). Bioethics - then is concerned with the rights and wrongs of the issue. Biotechnology is concerned with what can be done - solving the technical problems facing biology; whereas bioethics is concerned with deciding what should (or should not) be done - should we solve those problems and are the solutions morally acceptable? My purpose in this paper is to consider some of the legal developments in this area.