Genetically Modified Crops – Bioethical Approach
Keywords:
GMOs, controversies, bioethics, laws, decrees, theory, practiceAbstract
https://doi.org/10.21860/j.10.2.7
Biotechnology, genetic engineering, transgenic or genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have caused numerous controversies around the globe over the last twenty years. Scientific studies on the production and use of GMOs, although they do not have a uniform axiological sign nor offer simplified answers to expressed dilemmas, show that GM food poses a potential risk to human health, detrimental environmental impact, and general deterioration in the quality of agricultural crops. Classical bioethical questions regarding the potentially irreversible damage the biological heritage altered in this way can bring to the present, but also future generations should be added to this. The implementation of this, as its supporters call it, fastest-adopted plant technology in the modern history of humankind threatens, from the social aspect, traditional agricultural production and deepens the already great social inequalities between rich and poor farmers. There are also apparent interventions by large states and biotechnological companies when adopting or correcting appropriate laws and regulations on GMOs, which, although declaratively emphasizing general needs and the common good, in fact (un)skilfully conceal their own particular interests. Analyses made by many scientists and bioethicists, finally, show that the thesis that a “gene revolution” will resolve the problem of hunger in the world was not justified in the previous two decades.
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