The Ethics of Genetic Commerce

Our rapidly expanding genetic knowledge points toward a near future in which the elements of the human body could be produced, manipulated, commodified, and exchanged. Contributors to this groundbreaking volume academics and practitioners from the corporate sector, representing a diversity of backgrounds in business, social science, and philosophy internationally discuss the challenges of genetic commerce, both as a topic of understanding and as a process requiring direction, certain to remain at the core of ethical debate for decades to come. Edited by renowned business ethicist Robert W. Kolb, all articles are new for this volume.

Preface.

Part I: Genetic Screening.

1. Is a Genetics Screening Program for Job Applicants Ethical? An Analysis of the Conditions Necessary for Required Genetic Screenings in the Hiring Process (Thomas Harter).

2. The Business of Genetic Screening (Duane Windsor).

3. Genetic Commerce: The Challenges for Human Resource Management (Karen S. Markel and Lizabeth A. Barclay).

4. Geneticize Me! The Case for Direct–to–Consumer Genetic Testing (Ronald Munson).

5. Proscription, Prescription, or Market Process? Comments on Genetic Screening (Eugene Heath).

Part II: Genetically Modified Foods.

6. Transgenic Organisms, the European Union, and the World Trade Organization(Dennis Cooley).

7. Commercialization of the Agrarian Ideal and Arguments against the New Green Revolution: Feeding the World with Frankenfoods ? (Johann A. Klaasen).

8. Corporate Decisions about GM Food Labeling (Chris MacDonald and Melissa Whellams).

9. Moral Imagination, Stakeholder Engagement, and Genetically Modified Organisms (Denis Arnold).

Part III: Corporate Governance and Genetic Commerce.

10. Who Owns My Ideas About Your Body? (Asher Meir).

11. Pharmaceutical Mergers and Genetic Technology: A Problematic Combination (Michael Potts).

12. Stakeholder Care Theory: The Case of Genetic Engineering (Jamie R. Hendry).

13. Unresolved Issues and Further Questions: Meir, Potts and Hendry (Laura Hartman)

Robert W. Kolb holds the Frank W. Considine Chair in Applied Ethics at Loyola University Chicago. He was formerly Assistant Dean for Business and Society (2003 2006) at the University of Colorado, and John S. and James L. Knight Professor of Finance at the University of Miami. He is author and co–author of numerous texts in finance, including Futures, Options, and Swaps, 5e (with James A. Overdahl, Blackwell, 2007) and Understanding Futures Markets, 6e (with James A. Overdahl, Blackwell, 2006 ).

"These essays demonstrate the critical importance of applied ethics as we all grapple with the biotechnology revolution. These scholars use ethics to illustrate the conflicts that emerge from commercializing genetic technologies and to indicate how moral reasoning could help society make better decisions about how to deploy them. A much needed contribution to understanding the expanding role of genetic technologies in our world."
Keith Douglass Warner, Santa Clara University<!––end––>