The impact of genetic enhancement on equality

There apparently is a genuine possibility that genetic and non-genetic mechanisms eventually will be able to significantly enhance human capabilities and traits generally. Examining this prospect from the standpoint of equality considerations is one useful way to inquire into the effects of such enhancement technologies. Because of the nature and limitations of competing ideas of equality, we are inevitably led to investigate a very broad range of issues. This Article considers matters of distribution and withholding of scarce enhancement resources and links different versions of equality to different modes of distribution. It briefly addresses the difficulties of defining "enhancement" and "trait" and links the idea of a "merit attribute" to that of a "resource attractor." The role of disorder-based justifications is related to equality considerations, as is the possibility of the reduction or "objectification" of persons arising from the use of enhancement resources. Risks of intensified and more entrenched forms of social stratification are outlined. The Article also considers whether the notion of merit can survive, and whether the stability of democratic institutions based on a one-person, one-vote standard is threatened by attitude shifts given the new technological prospects. It refers to John Stuart Mill's "plural voting" proposal to illustrate one challenge to equal-vote democracy.     

Social impact analysis on technology transfer

As societies and cultures are changed, technology transfer is an integral part of the process of creating a new world order. A primary question is whether technology transfer serves as a force for good or evil. Based on some of the recent history of the United States and the impact oftechnology transfer upon a small group of tribal people in India, this article discusses the need for a social impact analysis approach to ameliorate the negative effects of rapid changes caused by unregulated technology transfer.     

影响刑事技术"破案力"的因素

影响刑事技术破案力的因素很多,笔者就此对广大基层实战单位进行了专门调研,认为主要受人员配置、民警素质、队伍的稳定程度、科技投入大小等几方面重要因素的影响.     

Bioethics and the National Security State

In previous work, I have described the history and ethics of human experiments for national security purposes during he cold war and developed the bioethical issues that will be apparent in the "war on terror". This paper is an attempt to bring these two previous lines of work together under the rubric of the "national security state," a concept familiar to Cold War historians and political scientists. The founding of the national security state was associated with the first articulations of informed consent requirements by national security agencies. My analysis indicates that strengthened consent standards, though conventionally thought to be antithetical crisis, can be seen as an attempt by the postwar national security state to protect itself from critics of expanded governmental power. During the coming years the renewed mission of the national security state in the war on terror should impel students of bioethics to consider its implications for the field.     

Understanding the environs that impact technology transfer and transition

Since the mythical time of King Arthur, technology transfer has interested governments. Arthurian history revels in the exploits of the knights as they search for the Holy Grail. Always, it seems, finding it must mean the end to poverty, hunger, illness-all the sufferings of the kingdom. In early renditions of the legend, the Grail was a set of magical talismans to be stolen from the Celtic otherworld. With the coming of Christianity, the Grail evolved into a eucharistic vessel. This paper focuses on the differences between technology transfer and technology transition while simultaneously emphasizing the impact of laboratory mission on the perceived importance of each task. The conceptual model presented highlights the difficulties inherent in changing the culture at federal laboratories.     

基因编辑技术对法医学鉴定的影响和挑战

近年来基因编辑技术发展突飞猛进,已经出现第三代CRISPR/Cas9基因编辑技术。世界各国的法律对人类胚胎基因干预性研究从严管理。基因编辑在人类胚胎层面开展研究,甚至会导致基因编辑婴儿出生,改变人类的基因顺序等信息也由可能走向现实,这对法医学同一认定、亲缘关系鉴定等造成负面影响。同时,犯罪分子也可能利用基因编辑技术改变自己的基因信息,从而避开犯罪基因信息库中的信息。这一生物遗传学技术的进步和实践应用趋势,应当引起法医学鉴定人员警惕,国家相关部门也应当加强监管。     

The impact of medical technology on the pregnant woman's right to privacy

It has been suggested that the advance of science and technology in the West has changed both the relationship of man to nature and of man to man. With regard to human reproduction, science and technology in medicine may certainly change the relationship of man to nature and of man to man, but also the concept of what it means to be human. Efforts must be taken to guarantee the rights of all humans. The author explores developing reproductive medical technology to consider how it may change our concept of humanness and how that change may be accommodated, encouraged, or impeded by the relationship between the government and its pregnant citizens as defined by the US Constitution and the right to privacy. Sections discuss the Constitution at the beginning of life; sterilization and the right to procreate; contraception, abortion, and the right not to procreate; and surrogacy. The author also discusses constitutional issues when the interests of a pregnant woman conflict with those of the fetus in terms of fetal surgery, forced cesarean-section cases, and the fetal abuse case of Pamela Monson Stewart.     

Research on innovation management and technology transfer in China

Research on innovation management and technology transfer in China is in its early stages and growing rapidly, as technology is transferred to Chinese organizations and the organizations themselves create innovations. The studies to date provide promising theoretical ideas, but specific findings should be regarded as tentative, due to the research designs and methods employed. As with early research on innovation in the West, it is likely that these early studies of innovation in China will have significant impact on innovation research and practice in the future, both in China and throughout the world.     

ATP’s impact on accelerating development and commercialization of advanced technology

One of ATP’s legislated mandates is to accelerate industry’s development and commercialization of new technologies. This survey of 28 projects funded in 1991 found that ATP helped cut technology development cycle time by 50% in most cases. Slightly more than half of the interviewees provided quantitative estimates of the economic value of reducing cycle time by a single year. Most interviewees expected the positive impact on cycle time experienced in the applied-research stage to flow through to later stages in the technology development cycle allowing them to enter the marketplace more quickly. Cycle-time improvements in other technology development projects were attributed by the companies to their ATP project. Two types of acceleration were implied: (1) overcoming delays in starting technology development projects, and (2) speeding up performance of research once it is under way. This paper is based on work performed by the author when she was serving as an industry consultant to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The author acknowledges the contributions of Rosalie Ruegg, Richard Spivack, Ernesto Robles, and Gregory Tassey, all of NIST, to the study. In addition, she expresses appreciation to the 28 company representatives who participated in the project interviews.     

The preamble of the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights of the UNESCO]

This article deals with the importance that the preamble has in relation with the Declaration. There is an emphasis on the legal nature of such, as well as the characteristics of the preamble as an international instrument, as it shapes the "context of the document". All this is in reference to the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights, whose preamble will be the object of a detailed study.