We must start from the principle that man is part of nature and must live in harmony with it. This means that human activities must be carried out in such a way that they are compatible with the maintenance and improvement of the ecological environment, which sustains and conditions it, and, furthermore, with respect and progress of the cultural factors that are the fruit of his moral conscience and his rational being.
One of the great themes that currently put man in front of nature, is human activity applied to economic development to increase the production of consumer and consumer goods, as well as to intensify and globalize communication in a universe whose demographic growth it necessarily imposes the preservation of the environment to avoid degradation, in search of a better quality of life.
It also requires sustainable development that does not compromise the needs of future generations, making rational use of natural resources, thus avoiding their depletion and the extinction of the diversity of species.
These confrontations between man and nature show a significant progress in scientific knowledge and an effective application of the most advanced technologies, but at the same time imposes the urgent need for a deep ethical reflection and a thoughtful analysis of its normative regulation so as not to affect the dignity of man and not inhibit the advancement of science.
These needs with which humanity has been confronted have been reflected in the scientific advances in biotechnology, understood as such, a set of techniques that allow achieving specific changes introduced by man in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), that is, in the genetic material of plants, animals, and microbial systems, until achieving useful products and technologies.
Biotechnology can prevent or reduce environmental deterioration in various ways. Biological tools can serve as terminal processes, where a waste stream is purified to the point where it can be released into the environment without causing harm.
It is also possible to develop biomaterials that serve as raw materials in the manufacture of products with low environmental impact, and innovative biological production processes can generate easier to handle waste.
Currently the most outstanding environmental benefit of biotechnology is the cleaning of contaminants; The process is known as biodecontamination and consists of the use of micro - organisms that break down the pollutants.
One of its first applications was to purify waste water, followed by purification of pollutant particles from the air and gas emissions. Now the focus is on the treatment of solid waste and contaminated soils, which is why decontamination At present it occupies a prominent place because a large number of contaminated sites - and that are true testimonies of the unsustainability of past practices - require urgent reconstructive action and also, because the relative and increasing cost / efficiency of biological methods exceeds to that of the more traditional physicochemical procedures.
But, although we are facing these benefits, there is a need for legal regulation that frames the issue within an ethical framework that does not endanger present and future generations.
The irreversible effects on the environment of experimental or commercial manipulations of a biological entity capable of reproducing or transferring genetic material has led the European Economic Community (now the European Union) to regulate the use and dissemination of these organisms called genetically modified organisms.
The EEC directives No. 90-219 and 220 of April 23, 1990 establish a notification process for the spread of GMOs, prior to start-up. A document must be produced that involves an assessment of the risks to human health and the environment.
Likewise, an exchange of information and permanent monitoring of the place is required.
Inspired by this resolution, countries such as France have issued specific regulations on the matter.
Through Law No. 92 - 654 of July 15, 1992 on Genetically Modified Organisms, a provision was created that requires consent and prior authorization for the use, experimentation and implementation of activities related to these organisms, as well as the right of all person to be informed about the consequences of voluntary dissemination, for public health and the environment.
When biology appears as a discipline that, based on the scientific investigations carried out, plays a decisive role in the destiny of man, it deserves a particular study, since legislation does not always accompany certain contributions and practices in this field of knowledge. As a preventive measure, research aimed at cloning human beings is prohibited in our country.
But, without going to that extreme, there are other issues that deserve urgent legal regulation.
Products resulting from biotechnology are increasingly found in agricultural production and in the food chain.
The commercialization of agri-food products derived from biotechnology highlights certain regulatory issues in terms of environmental biosecurity. That is why international organizations such as the OECD have decided to focus their work on the subject that requires the deepest scientific and political analysis, since these two facets are relevant to sustainable development.
Thus, the following topics have been addressed:
Environmental biosecurity: Concepts and principles for evaluating the safety of genetically modified crops or micro-organisms, as well as developing a common basis for harmonizing regulatory issues.
Food safety: The development of consensus regarding concepts to evaluate safety, and thus underline the development of national and international regulations.
Certification of seeds: Relevant for the international trade in seeds or the carrying out of experimental tests in different regions and countries; Biological resource management: The interests and needs of agronomic research, in that it assimilates the techniques and tools of modern biotechnology.
Biotechnology and agriculture in developed countries: Many applications of biotechnology in the developed world do not respond to the needs of developing countries, where the potential benefits derived from appropriate applications and the needs are surely still very great.
These studies are not irrelevant, because, although the new foods derived from biotechnology offer the possibility of obtaining larger harvests, greater resistance to certain diseases and therefore less use of pesticides, thus contributing to sustainable development, it is under study. determine the safety of novel foods.
Test methods and strategies have been developed to evaluate foodstuffs derived from biotechnology, as well as those subjected to radiation (Food Safety Evaluations, OECD 1996).
This work is still ongoing, on testing methods and strategy to assess the toxicological and nutritional potential of recent products.
Likewise, serum banks have been prepared in order to carry out tests on possible allergic reactions inherent in these., As well as data banks to ensure new foods for both human and animal consumption, studies that are being carried out jointly with other organizations. like FAO and WHO.
Likewise, the problems that may be triggered by genetically modified seeds are not ruled out, placing them at the center of the sustainability problem.
At this stage of the development of the subject we are in a position to affirm that it is not sufficient to satisfy an aspiration for justice, the reproach of individual conscience or the sanction of a professional conduct court, when bioethical transgression compromises common security and public health. or injure legitimate individual interests. The need to convert diverse and delicate aspects of biotechnology into legal norms, which can aggravate collective morals and damage respectable private interests, which justifies legally sanctioning the guilty or willful conduct of those responsible.
The passage from ethics to law implies the need for the law.
Although law and ethics share the search for the most axiologically valuable solutions, it is only up to the law to translate shared principles and values into rules of obligatory observation for the whole of society.
However, legislative activity should not be encouraged to convert all the principles of bioethics into legal norms that, under the threat of legal responsibilities, inhibit the progress of scientific research, understanding bioethics as "the systematic study of human behavior in the area of life sciences and health care, in that such conduct is examined in light of human values and principles. "
Faced with this reality, there is also a need to review our conception of natural resources, to try to complement it with cultural resources, which are the fruit of human activity, and to build with it one more bridge of rapprochement between nations, which will decisively promote consolidation of international law.
Nations must understand that between the use of a good from nature and the current and future use of a cultural resource, there is a reciprocal influence that imposes the need to coordinate the effects that are necessarily going to occur reciprocally.
The global conception of bioethics and its interrelation with the sustainability of development inevitably leads to biopolitics, citizen action to achieve that solidarity responsibility materializes in policies that necessarily include the leading participation of both civil society, and of the States and international organizations of a governmental nature or not. Achieving the backbone and coherence of these efforts goes through a substantial change in values education where morality is separated from knowledge and becomes a constituent part of it. Bioethics, thus interpreted, is a matter of the whole of society and not a subject of academic discussion among an elite of initiates.
So we must consider what Potter points out when formulating that “bioethics represents a profound cultural rupture. Man is required to reconcile morality and to know as a unique entity; that the moral is incorporated into knowledge as an important component of the objectivity and legitimacy of knowledge. A proposal of actions for the formation of responsible subjects in a cultural environment of change. He is called to produce a revolution in human knowledge, and was defined by its author in terms that emphasize this claim… ".
It must be borne in mind that there is a set of values, typical of our deep Latin American identity, that appear not only as pertinent to the transition towards a culture of sustainability, but also as indispensable to transition towards a new morality.
Rigoberta Menchú (2002) affirms that: “The values on which indigenous peoples have built our complex systems are founded on cooperation and reciprocity of community life; in the authority of the elderly and our relationship with the ancestors; in intergenerational communication and responsibility; in the collective right to land, territory and resources; in the austerity and self-sufficiency of our forms of production and consumption; at the local level and the priority of local natural resources in our development; in the ethical, spiritual and sacred nature of the bond of our peoples with all the work of creation. ”
He also points out that it is not possible to introduce mercantilist valuations to such complex conceptions so that the assumptions on which "intellectual property rights" have been built in international and domestic law, which exclusively recognize the rights of "natural" or "natural" persons Legal rights "or those of" individual creators ", denying them to collective entities such as indigenous peoples, protect only the information resulting from" discoveries ", while indigenous knowledge that is transgenerational and communal is not protected. On the other hand, very complex systems of property, tenure and access are not recognized as those that characterize many expressions of indigenous cultures, and the aim is to give owners to the resources of nature,while the concerns of indigenous peoples are to prohibit their commercialization and rationalize their use and distribution. Similarly, economic market values are exclusively recognized and not spiritual, aesthetic and cultural values, or even local economic values, all of which are subject to manipulation by groups of economic and political interests that determine who is protected and to whom is favored.
Our artificialized forms of life have separated us from the natural, in such a way that we become uncomfortable with humidity, leaves, dust, rain, these are the constituent and essential elements of our existence, such as land and water.
Marcos Terena (1995), leader of the Yanomami ethnic group in Brazil and leader of the Intertribal Committee, describes how the first newborn is given his first bath in the river as soon as the sun rises and the creature comes out of the cold water crying out to sea, But then smile, take a deep breath, and become part of the natural balance.
“This is how a centuries-old custom of our people took place: starting our relationship with the environment from birth, in this case knowing water to learn later how to sip it and quench our thirst, to navigate it with our bodies. By doing this, we would never fail to respect nature, its ability to protect us, to feed us, to strengthen our spirits and incite us to believe in the Great Creator. ”
