Perceptions, attitudes and ethical valuations: the ambivalence of the public image of biotechnology in Spain
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Tài liệu tham khảo
1993, Europeans, Science and Technology: Public Understanding and Attitudes
and L. Moreno, “La Opinión Pública y los Avances en Genética,” in Genes en el Estrado, ed. D. Borrillo (Madrid: CSIC 1996).
E. Marlier, 1992, Biotechnology in Public. A Review of Recent Research
Luján, et al., La Biotecnología y los Expertos: Aproximación a la Percepción de la Biotecnología y la Ingeniería Genética entre Colectivos de Expertos; and Moreno, “La Opinión Pública y los Avances en Genética.”
The Southern European average is that of Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece; the European average corresponds to the 12 Community countries in 1993.
Moreno, Biotecnología y Sociedad: Percepción y Actitudes Sociales
Luján , et al., Technology in Society, pp. 335-355.
W. J. M. Heijs, 1993, Biotechnology: Attitudes and Influencing Factors
IESA, Biotecnología y Opinión Pública en España.
R. Grove-White, 1997, Uncertain World
This study was carried out in 1996; see J. Atienza and J. L. Luján, La Imagen Social de las Nuevas Tecnologías Biológicas en España (Madrid: Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas, 1997).
This study was conducted in 1996;
1997, European Opinions on Modern Biotechnology
Using modern biotechnology in the production of foods to, for example, make them higher in protein, increase their shelf-life, or change their taste; taking genes from plant species and transferring them into crop plants to make them more resistant to insect pests; introducing human genes into bacteria to produce medicines or vaccines, for example to produce insulin for diabetics; developing genetically modified animals for laboratory research studies, such as a mouse that incorporates cancer-causing genes; introducing human genes into animals to produce organs for human transplants, such as pigs for human heart transplants; and using genetic testing to detect diseases we might have inherited from our parents, such as cystic fibrosis, mucovisciosis, or thalassemia.
Another important point to consider is the general ambivalence of the citizens of many industrialized countries towards science and technology. Many people show confidence in the need for and usefulness of science and technology, while at the same time expressing reserves regarding its negative effects. Research shows that in the European Union most citizens hold such an ambivalent stand, combining relative high levels of both confidence and reserve, see J. D. Miller, R. Pardo, and F. Niwa, Percepciones del Público ante la ciencia y la tecnología (Bilbao: Fundación BBV, 1998). This situation helps explain the apparent contradiction between, for instance, positive valuation of certain research and development activities, on one hand, and negative attitudes towards products, on the other; the general scientific-technological optimism trait of public opinion might influence the positive moral valuation of scientific-technological processes in general, while the concurrently expressed reserves show up in the negative assessment of the usefulness of certain concrete products.
P. Sandberg, 1997, Fast Salmon and Technoburgers