Panellists: Simon Bradshaw (intellectual property lawyer),Richard Ashcroft (bioethics professor), Jody Lynn Nye, Simon Ings(New Scientist), Carolina Gómez Lagerlöf (patent expert), Joan Paterson (doctor – genetics specialist)

Who owns medical implants – the patient, the health service, the company that made them? Should the patient have access to details of the hardware and software? If an artificial organ is keeping you alive, does the company get to turn it off if you don’t keep paying the ever rising bills? What happens when companies close? When you move from mechanical implants to genetic treatment, who owns the DNA inserted into your cells? Will you become a product wholly owned by Big Pharma?

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Recently, there was some social media discussion among book bloggers and reviewers over the potential breach of ethics regarding a prominent book vlogger called Christine Riccio who did not issue a proper disclaimer over the promoted content of her video reviews. While a brief line in the text description of at least four of her videos noted that the publishers had “sponsored” them, there was no mention of that in the video itself, except for a vague moment of being asked to talk about the book in question in one. Many, including myself, considered this to be a major conflict of interest. While she claims all opinions are her own, there’s nothing written or said by Riccio, who has over 100,000 subscribers, on what she had to do as part of the sponsored deal or what the publisher expected from her as part of this arrangement.

 

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My rating: 

As Sarah would say: Fan-bloody-tastic!

Except I’m not being sarcastic.

A truly thrilling wild ride of conspiracies and spies. The intense suspense of the finale had me on the edge of my seat screaming “Nooooo!” when the credits ran.

 

'Orphan Black is a Canadian science fiction television series starring Tatiana Maslany as several identical women who are revealed to be clones. The series focuses on Sarah Manning, a woman who assumes the identity of her clone, Elizabeth Childs, after witnessing the latter’s suicide. The series raises issues about the moral and ethical implications of human cloning and its impact on issues of personal identity.' [Source: Wikipedia]

 

 

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