Biotechnology Policy Across National Boundaries: The Science-Industrial Complex

By Darrell M. West

Book Overview

A globalization of innovation has produced the most massive spurt in biotechnology in world history. Businesses, universities, and non-governmental organizations are collaborating to produce a "science-industrial complex" in biotechnology. Using case studies of stem cell research, cloning, genetically modified food, in-vitro fertilization, and chimeras in a number of Eastern and Western countries around the world, I argue that much of this biotech activity is global in nature and independent of state control. This shift in the relative influence of state and non-state actors has led to the virtual deregulation of biotechnology and the liberation of innovation from geo-political constraints. These trends post a number of interesting social, political, and ethical issues for the contemporary period and suggest the need to rethink how controversial moral issues are handled by the science-industrial complex.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1349533807
• ISBN13: 9781349533800
• Release Date: June 2007
• Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.59 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.5"