Here’s a hypothetical: you’re walking down the street, casually smoking a cigarette or drinking a cup of freshly brewed coffee. Now let’s assume that you don’t discard the derelict cigarette butt in an adjacent ashtray or bin as you assuredly always do, but flick it to the ground. Perhaps the coffee container to which you pressed your lips finds itself in a wastepaper basket, lying on the top of an office graveyard littered with post-it-notes, straws and the occasional phlegm-ridden tissue. If a police officer picks up the trash, does the police department now own your genetic information? Can it be used in court?
Bioethics. As is with any ethical and moral dilemma, discussing bioethics can be as complex as the double helix from which it originates.
Read the full article here: The Ethics of Digging The Double-Helix