Biotechnology, Patents and Ethics

Open online seminar with Christian Gamborg: Biotechnology, Patents and Ethics – A Statement/Report from the Danish Council of Ethics about the Relation between Biopatents and Ethically Responsible Technology Development.

Professor Christian Gamborg from IFRO is member of The Danish Council of Ethics and Chair of a working group on the ethics of biopatents (patenteting of biotechnologies).

At the end of November, the council will publish a new report and at this online seminar Christian will present the report.

The Danish Council of Ethics on the report:

Biotechnologies are revolutionizing the way we create medicine, food, energy and even children. Everything indicates that the development of new biotechnologies will play a crucial role in how we will deal with major challenges in relation to, for example, the climate crisis, food safety, biodiversity and health. Patents are assumed to contribute to faster and better technological innovation.

However, rapid technological development is rarely an end in itself. From an ethical perspective, the patent must therefore be seen as an element of a social contract, the purpose of which is the development of socially beneficial and ethically justifiable technology.

In the report the Danish Council of Ethics addresses a number of ethical issues related to the patenting of biotechnologies (biopaten ting). The report primarily concerns biopatenting at a (i) European level. It relates to (ii) the tension between new technology (e.g. CRISPR) and older patent law, and concerns an (iii) agricultural-related (“green”) biotechnology case (NGT1 plants) as well as a pharmaceutical-related (“red”) biopatent case (germ line editing of human genome). The report identifies some overall points of attention in relation to biopatents.

How to participate

The seminar is open to all.
The seminar will take place online via Zoom.