Emerging biotechnologies: full report - Nuffield Council on Bioethics
Emerging biotechnologies: full report - Nuffield Council on Bioethics
Emerging biotechnologies: full report - Nuffield Council on Bioethics
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E m e r g i n g b i o t e c h n o l o g i e s<br />
sometimes gives rise to what is known as the ‘free rider’ problem, where people enjoy for free a<br />
good that others have borne the cost of providing. 252 Thus, <strong>on</strong>ce a c<strong>on</strong>tributi<strong>on</strong> to scientific<br />
knowledge becomes widely known, it is not possible to prevent any<strong>on</strong>e with a certain level of<br />
scientific understanding from learning about it and making use of it.<br />
4.7 Some of the goods bound together in <str<strong>on</strong>g>biotechnologies</str<strong>on</strong>g> may be regarded as private and others as<br />
public. In c<strong>on</strong>trast to the knowledge comp<strong>on</strong>ent, the product comp<strong>on</strong>ent of <str<strong>on</strong>g>biotechnologies</str<strong>on</strong>g> may<br />
very well be both rivalrous and excludable, and therefore a marketable good. (This is<br />
irrespective of whether it is a good, like vaccines or other medicines, whose wide availability is<br />
socially desirable to the extent that it is provided by the state and funded through general<br />
taxati<strong>on</strong>). For example, biofuels, pharmaceuticals, medical treatments, genetically engineered<br />
seeds and animals may all be bought and sold at a price determined by the market (although<br />
their desirable characteristics may attract subsidies and other interventi<strong>on</strong>s, just as undesirable<br />
<strong>on</strong>es may attract regulatory burdens and other penalties). On the other hand, some<br />
biotechnology products are n<strong>on</strong>-excludable. These include goods such as bioremediati<strong>on</strong><br />
(dealing with oil spills, for example) or envir<strong>on</strong>mental ameliorati<strong>on</strong>.<br />
4.8 Public goods typically require collective will and collective acti<strong>on</strong> to deliver. 253 Because of the<br />
absence of an adequate commercial incentive to develop public goods, they are generally<br />
provided by governments (or charities), either through the public sector providers or through<br />
purchasing from private providers funded by general taxati<strong>on</strong>. In the case of some goods, such<br />
as nati<strong>on</strong>al prosperity through innovati<strong>on</strong> and military strategic advantage, the relevant<br />
collective may be equivalent to a nati<strong>on</strong>al political jurisdicti<strong>on</strong>. However, there is an argument –<br />
based <strong>on</strong> the fact that there are str<strong>on</strong>g b<strong>on</strong>ds and interests that cross nati<strong>on</strong>al borders (the<br />
shared experience of, and interest in, climate change or pandemic disease, for example) – that<br />
some <str<strong>on</strong>g>biotechnologies</str<strong>on</strong>g> may bel<strong>on</strong>g to a special class of ‘global public goods’. These are goods<br />
that “tend towards universality in the sense that they benefit all countries, populati<strong>on</strong> groups and<br />
generati<strong>on</strong>s”. 254 Examples might include scientific and practical knowledge, and ‘global policy<br />
outcomes’ such as global health benefit sharing or bioremediati<strong>on</strong>. 255<br />
4.9 Given that at least some comp<strong>on</strong>ent elements of <str<strong>on</strong>g>biotechnologies</str<strong>on</strong>g> are public goods requiring<br />
collective acti<strong>on</strong>, a further source of public interest is in the c<strong>on</strong>siderable quantity of public<br />
resources that are invested in generating them, for example, the funding of knowledge<br />
generati<strong>on</strong> through academic research councils and in higher educati<strong>on</strong>, and various public<br />
schemes to support biotechnology science and innovati<strong>on</strong>. Such funding is invested in the<br />
expectati<strong>on</strong> of a return that will make a positive c<strong>on</strong>tributi<strong>on</strong> to the good of the nati<strong>on</strong> and,<br />
indeed, bey<strong>on</strong>d, in terms of direct benefits within biotechnology sectors – such as health care<br />
and agriculture – and often, more prosaically, to nati<strong>on</strong>al income generally. 256 It is this<br />
expectati<strong>on</strong> that we expressed through the shorthand of the ‘biotechnology wager’. 257 There is<br />
therefore a public interest that public resources are invested wisely and distributed fairly, and<br />
used in accordance with other public values.<br />
The value of living things<br />
4.10 In additi<strong>on</strong> to the interest that people have in <str<strong>on</strong>g>biotechnologies</str<strong>on</strong>g> as means to further ends that are<br />
desired, a further set of ethical interests in the nature of <str<strong>on</strong>g>biotechnologies</str<strong>on</strong>g> themselves must also<br />
252 For an overview of the free rider problem, see: Hardin R (2003) The free rider problem Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,<br />
available at: http://www.science.uva.nl/~seop/entries/free-rider.<br />
253 Ols<strong>on</strong> M (1965) The logic of collective acti<strong>on</strong>: public goods and the theory of groups (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard<br />
University Press).<br />
254 Kaul I, Grunberg I and Stern M (Editors) (1999) Global public goods: internati<strong>on</strong>al cooperati<strong>on</strong> in the 21st Century (New<br />
York: Oxford University Press). See also: O'Neill O (2011) Broadening bioethics: clinical ethics, public health and global<br />
health, available at:<br />
http://www.nuffieldbioethics.org/sites/default/files/files/Broadening_bioethics_clinical_ethics_public_health_&global_health.pd<br />
f.<br />
255 We look at ways in which these various goods are provided in Chapters 7 and 9, where we discuss issues of nati<strong>on</strong>al<br />
research and innovati<strong>on</strong> policy, and commercialisati<strong>on</strong>, respectively.<br />
256 Although, as we note elsewhere, increased ec<strong>on</strong>omic activity does not necessarily entail social benefits. See paragraph<br />
9.31.<br />
257 See paragraphs 1.1 to 1.3.<br />
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