Mgt623 Week 3 Genetic Products

1. Using the ethical philosophies, please discuss the ethical issues involved with companies that manage genetic products.

The current and potential knowledge of genetics is already extensive. Availability of genetic products is growing and the potential number and variety appears to be without limits. The speed with which companies are engaging in developing and marketing these products, could be likened to an explosion. When one thinks about the products, the potential, the legal and the ethical issues, one recognizes the complexity of these issues, and why these important considerations of legal and ethical considerations are falling behind.

The number and variety of the stakeholders associated with genetic products and the knowledge they generate include the following: the individual tested, the individual’s family, employers, schools, military, insurance carriers, the courts and the government, with the largest stakeholder group being society at large. The following paragraphs attempt to look at some of the concerns of the stakeholder from five different ethical positions.

In 2000, using the philosophical ethic of care approach, Lew Maltby warned society that “the knowledge we gain from the genetic revolution chips away at our very sense of community” (who.it/genomics, 2000). He points out that one’s “willingness to think of ourselves as members of a community and act as a community” depends on two widely accepted facts (who.it/genomics, 2000). First accepted fact, rooted deep in our core we are all social beings. Second accepted fact, is that, individually we are all better off as members of a community (who.it/genomics). The genetic products and the information companies and the individual hold may erode this sense of community. Prior to the availability of genetic products and the knowledge they bring, one had no inkling who among the community may be struck by any given disease or limitation. As such, it makes and made sense for one to be part...