SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF BIOTECHNOLOGY IN MEDICINE
Authors: Finkelstein Joanne 
Published: August 2010

Biotechnology is currently being privatised, with an expectation of future commercial developments. As biotechnology enters into medicine this entrepreneurial ethic is becoming more visible in the medical services being offered to the public. Recent bioethical commentaries have brought proper attention to dilemmas in medical practices but they have largely overlooked the impact on the nature of society. The argument of this paper is that the influence of modern medicine on society is extending in ways that may not be fully anticipated nor desired. By raising the issue of who benefits most from the inclusion of biotechnology into medical practice, the problem of the increasing disenfranchisement of the consumer clearly emerges.

During the past two decades, medical techniques and apparatus for the diagnosis and treatment of a variety of human ailments have made rapid progress. Many of the technological innovations are well in advance of statutory regulation. Organ transplants, genetic manipulation, in vitro fertilisation, reproductive options such as cloning, ectogenesis and embryo transfer, are examples of high technology medicine which have provoked controversy and official enquiries, yet still continue to receive support for research. As well, there are increasing medical successes in life‐saving surgical procedures and reconstructions following severe damage through trauma or disease. The Victorian Government's current enquiry into euthanasia has been made necessary by the acknowledged success of medicine in prolonging human life by technological means in circumstances that are unprecedented; for example, the maintenance of premature infants weighing less than 1000 grams or of individuals who are comatosed after trauma.

Many universities, hospitals and research institutes have recently created centres for the study of human bioethics, often for the explicit purpose of assisting governmental agencies in the formulation of regulatory legislation. The emergence of such “watchdog” agencies gives weight to the suspicion that human biotechnology may be bringing substantial changes to the society that have not been anticipated. A new class of moral entrepreneur, the bioethicist who is most often a theologian, philosopher, lawyer or economist, has emerged and is attempting to evaluate the impact of biotechnology on the society. To date, the bioethicists major concerns have been specific issues such as the allocation of scarce medical services or the appropriate application of biotechnology to specific human ailments and conditions. Little attention has been given to other important consequences of developments in biotechnology, such as the emergence of the entrepreneurial ‘pharmocrat’ or ‘technodoc’ who is altering the economic and social relationship between the doctor and patient; to the influence that biomedicine is having on the kinds of medical treatments available and for which conditions; and to the changes to the structure of society that are taking place as the distribution of medical services in the community is influenced by the privatised economic interests of the biotechnology industries.

This paper does not address the philosophical implications of biotechnology in medicine. Rather, a sociological perspective is taken which views modern medicine as an element in the social fabric and as a leading social force or agent of social change. The issue raised is the power of contemporary medicine to transform society. This issue has received significant impetus from several sources each of which demonstrates a strong reliance on biotechnology: these are, the commercialisation of medicine, the disenfranchisement of the consumer and the current emphasis on an interventionist medicine. On investigation, these mainsprings of medical dominance, largely ignored by the bioethical commentaries, reveal medicine as a powerful economic institution and mediator of social change. These aspects of a commercialised medicine will be developed in the next section. By considering two separate fields of medical practice, namely, the treatment of infertility and the application of high technology medicine in the prolongation of life, the impact of medicine on shaping society will be presented.