BioChemical pathways
& Their Application in Biotechnology
Societal Issue
One of the main issues that arises from the discovery of new pathways, is the strenous research that comes before hand. The lengths taken to gain this information is often achieved by means that are not necessarily conventional. For example, in the Drug section of this website, it was discussed how the Reward Pathway was discovered. This discovery was achieved by provoking rats with electrical impulses that stimulate a "high". The rats, needing to experience the pleasure, continously pressed on the lever until they pushed themselves to the stage of death.
Ethical Issue
For someone who is in the field of research and development, they must know the amount of research that goes into creating a new drug - especially for a drug that could help billions. Yes, the knowledge of biochemical pathways has aided this research. With this information, researchers can create a certain pill that can be designed to work within a certain pathway in order to produce a certain result. But is it fair that the prices of these pharmaceuticals have to be so high? The information of biochemical pathways is used to aid people. But in the case of the sick and their battle with pharmaceutical companies, the costs of drugs are so high that these people begin to drown in debt just to pay for their medication.
Environmental Issue
Another issue that has occurred due to the discovery of Biochemical Pathways is the damage applied to the environment as a result. For instance, understanding the mechanisms of various plants, scientists were able to create herbicides that could easily destroy unwanted organisms. However, this knowledge led to the creation of highly toxic chemicals such as DDT that heavily polluted not only the surrounding environment but contaminated its organisms. The same can be said for the creation of insecticides - though to a much smaller degree.
Legal Issue
The last common issue with the discovery of these Metabolic Pathways, is the problems that occur when new pharmaceuticals, intended to alleviate symptoms of certain diseases, are developed. For instance, when reading about Parkinson's Disease, many of the pharmaceuticals developed failed to "cure" the disease completely. Rather, the medicine was responsible for temporarily calming the symptoms of the disease. It is frequently seen however, that these pharmaceuticals often created to alleviate symptoms lead to the addition of more severe symptoms. It is in scenarios such as these where legal implications are held against the company that created the pharmaceutical.
