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Challenges of Justice in the Context of Plant Genetic Resources.

  • Deplazes-Zemp A Ethics Research Institute (ERI), Centre for Ethics of the University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
  • 2019-11-12
Published in:
  • Frontiers in plant science. - 2019
Convention on Biological Diversity
access and benefit-sharing
commutative justice
distributive justice
environmental justice
genetic resources
English In this article, I discuss access and benefit-sharing (ABS) for plant genetic resources from an ethical perspective. This leads to the question of what types of justice actually play a role when more equity and fairness is demanded for plant genetic resources. Five dimensions of justice will be distinguished: classical distributive justice, which deals with a fair distribution of goods; commutative justice, which concerns a fair exchange of "give-and-receive"; justice as recognition, which relates to treating all involved parties with the same respect; reparative justice, which pertains to fair amendments for wrongful actions in the past; and procedural justice, which is concerned with just decision processes. Drawing on the discussion of ethical problems with biopiracy, the distribution of environmental burdens, and plant genetic resources in agriculture, I will illustrate that the use of genetic resources poses challenges across all five dimensions of justice. Because the combination of justice challenges is specific for each case of resource use, I will argue that it is important that users of genetic resources are aware of the complexity of justice problems to ensure fair and equitable ABS negotiations.
Language
  • English
Open access status
gold
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Persistent URL
https://sonar.ch/global/documents/169134
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