Bioethics in plant biotechnology is less developed as far as the fundamental relationship between human and nature is concerned. However, issues such as biosafety, intellectual property rights and biodiversity have ethical dimensions as well, and receive ample attention in plant biotechnology. This approach is reflected in the studies on consumer acceptance and public attitudes towards biotechnology. Metaethics examines the structure or logic of moral reasoning, including the justifications and inferences. This approach critically analyses whether positions in bioethical debates are in coherence with the principles on which they are said to be based and consistent with the way in which other comparable ethical dilemmas are dealt with.
Prescriptive ethics is a normative approach.
Normative approaches in ethics involve taking moral positions. Prescriptive ethics attempts to formulate and defend basic principles and virtues governing moral life. In its applied form, prescriptive ethics are reflected in ethical regulation of modern biotechnology as is dealt with in the article of Macer . Another form is its materialization in codes of conducts such as EuropaBio's Core Ethical Values, which are analyzed critically in this Monitor issue. One of the central issues of ethical regulation is on what moral principles regulation could be based.