International Regulation of Biotechnology: Problems and Prospects

Abstract

AbstractIntroductionOf the issues that confront modern science and the imperatives for development and human progress today, none is more controversial than biotechnology. As one author notes, within ‘a few short decades, the powerful means of biotechnology have revolutionized medicine, agriculture and environmental protection’. The potential implications of biotechnology transcend science and the environment and impact directly on the liberalisation of international trade, the protection of intellectual property rights, the right of self determination of indigenous populations and as custodians and owners of centres of biodiversity, and indeed on international relations generally. Advocates of biotechnology argue that the modification of the genetic make-up of living organisms is nothing new and that biotechnology has been part of human agricultural practices for centuries.