Rapidly developing technology poses more new challenges. Genetic engineering, biorobotics, genomics, and other subdivisions of biotechnology require advanced scientific knowledge and plenty of financial resources. But ethical issues do not drop behind. These technologies tend to revolutionize the field of medicine, and their methods are innovative. Many of them involve manipulations that will not appeal to anybody such as testing on humans and embryos. An exceptional access to personal genetic data poses a threat to personal privacy. Which is more, side effects of biotechnology are yet to come. However advanced these methods were, the first decades of applying biotechnology will show unexpected consequences of new methods.
Due to numerous clinical trials on human genes, their subjects face the problem of inadequate protection. Scientists cannot 100 percent guarantee the outcome of the experiment, and testers may suffer from unnecessary harm. On the one hand, terminally-ill patients agree to everything that can possibly help them, on the other hand – they may become victims of irresponsible clinical trials.
Price is another issue which creates a controversy. Trials and procedures in biotechnology are extremely costly which means that they are not accessible to the majority of patients. Insurers will not cover such costly manipulations, and the whole medical engineering will remain an extensive scientific research with little practical implication.
Privacy is another huge concern of biotechnology. It is really unclear who shall have an access to these data. As soon as genetic research reveals information about the future conditions of individuals, they will face unemployment and inability to get an insurance. Even if this does not happen, one of the sides will bear losses – someone shall pay a small fortune for the innovative medicine.