New genetics, new ethics? Globalisation and its discontents

Abstract

The paper discusses the rapid and significant development of new genetic technologies (in health, food and agriculture) in the theoretical context of the globalisation debate. We show how the studies on the ethical, legal and social implications of biotechnological innovation have themselves emerged as an important factor in the technological innovation and product development process. Ethical considerations are becoming integral to attempts to understand techno-scientific developments in late modernity. However, ethical studies have so far been more focused on the medical rather than the overall commercial application of genomics. Their relevance to this wider context of the globalised commodification of new genetics needs to be explored. Of special significance is the introduction of ethical considerations into the debates on globalised risk, which we will explore in relation to increasing disparities between the global North and South.