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The Application of Metabolic Pathways on Biotechnology
Issues
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.
Environmental Issue: Another issue that has occurred due to the discovery of Metabolic 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.
Social Issue: With the discovery of Metabolic Pathways, as well as various other pathways located within the body, many new things were created - herbicides, drugs, pharmaceuticals, and weapons of biological warfare. These inventions have caused the human race to suffer terribly despite the intial advantages they brought. Herbicides, required to control weeds, ended up poisoning the human race and leading to a passage of contamination - one that could occur as a baby drank from his/her mother's breast milk. In addition, the tools utilized in biological warfare have caused severe damage to the human race too - deep chemical burns, missing limbs, infections, etc.
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.
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