Curricular influence and perceptions of engineering graduates on socio ethical issues related to Biotechnology

Keywords


Introduction
-The impact of BT is on all strides of mankind, the fallout of which is the skepticism about social acceptance of BT products and processes.With appropriate subject knowledge the perception of an individual in this regard will undergo radical transformation.In view of this, ethical and safety issues related to BT are introduced as component of core courses in the curriculum of Biotechnology Engineering education.The present study involves survey pertaining to socio ethical aspects.The survey was conducted on biotechnology engineers, graduated over a period of seven years (2006 to 2012).The responses obtained indicated the ability of the graduates to judge a complex situation related to ethics in BT.Also, responses of the graduates displayed high level of social awareness and responsiveness.ethics; Biotechnology; social responsibility; survey; engineering graduates Twenty first century is acclaimed to be the century of biology.But, the question is whether we are ethically ready?
News such as "Pharmaceutical industry used prisoners for testing their drugs as the prisoners were much cheaper than chimpanzees."are disturbing.An experiment conducted on Guatemalans involved intentionally infecting humans with syphilis organism to test effectiveness of penicillin [9].
Young minds need to be tailored for apt decision making and judgment [10,11].Incorporation of ethics as compulsory course is essential in Biotechnology engineering curriculum [12].
The course content should include case studies as a large part and Socratic Method of instruction will enhance the understanding and practice of ethics.A student's personal reflection on complicated issues which are intrigued with multiple aspects need to be perceived to get feedback on the instructed course.The ability of the student to judge a situation and combat with it will be reflected in surveys consisting of few performance indices.In the existing scenario, the present study is planned to judge the socio ethical responsiveness of the BE-BT graduates with the several performance indices and the results are analyzed and interpreted.
BE Biotechnology syllabi of BMS college of Engineering includes several courses incorporated with guidelines on safety and regulatory aspects pertaining to BT.The table 1 depicts the various courses and their content pertaining to ELSI (Ethical, legal, social Implications ) of BT product and process development and entrepreneurship, apart from bioethics and biosafety as core course offered in higher semesters.The course appraises the students on issues related with regulations in R & D, transfer of technology, bio business, human rights, societal acceptance of BT products, etc.Thus students by the end of their course will have comprehensive view on every aspect of ethics and safety.Further, one of the Program Educational Objectives (PEO) set for the BE biotech program was the socio-ethical responsibility of graduates.
To assess socio ethical responsiveness of our graduates, several queries (Table 2) were put to BT alumni via online survey tool (www.monkey survey.com).The number of alumni responded to the queries were 74 (N) and the responses collected are graphically represented.
As given in the table six performance indexes were taken for assessing the socio-ethical responsiveness of the graduates.The results were (total of 74 responses) tabulated (Table 3) and were graphically represented in Figure 1-6.
Querry no 1: "Fig.1" depicts the alumni responses for their opinion on "whether a lifesaving drug be patented for prolonged years".About 35% responded for the drug to be never patented and another 55% favored patent for a very short period, i.e 5 / 10 years.Currently a new drug is given 20 years of protection in many countries.Few countries grant additional protection up to 5 years.From the responses obtained it can be inferred that the students are aware of the huge costs involved in drug discovery, clinical trials and approvals.The responses also indicate that the students are aware of the prolonged years and low success rates of a drug development process.

Results and Discussion
Querry no 2: "Fig.2" depicts responses of the graduates on the issue of approval for human cloning.The results indicate that 94% of them disapprove or approve with restriction, indicating their awareness towards the negative implications of human cloning at the same time their awareness on the application of animal cloning in human organ transplantation.
Question No 3: "Fig.3" depicts the responses on the issue "Attitude of multinationals not developing drugs for rare diseases due to high cost of production and low returns".Majority of the students were in disfavor displaying social concern for the sufferers of rare diseases.
Question No 4: "Fig.4" depicts the responses on the issue whether they have donated blood individually or in a blood donation camp, about 58% were affirmative and 22% were not eligible for the donation.This reflects that the graduates have concern towards the needy patients.
Question No 5: "Fig.5" depicts that majority of the graduates donated for a social cause.About 70% of graduates have donated for social cause .Question No 6: "Fig.6" depicts that majority of the graduates have signed for a social cause.More than 65% of graduates have signed for social cause at least once.
In a long term study to determine if a Biotech course influenced students' knowledge, acceptance of risk and ethics in biotechnology, survey was conducted at the starting day and ending day of a 13 day-Biotechnology awareness course over ten years.The authors concluded that the responses obtained reflected increase in subject knowledge and better perception on the GMO products, but no compromise in the Ethical attitude [13].In concurrence, our graduate study results reflected the responsiveness of students to the social issues and acceptance to some extent on the issues involving fetal research and showed no compromise on ethical issues.Studies conducted on students from 11 Western Australian schools on acceptance of BT products derived from organisms, the percentage of acceptance for the use of microorganisms is higher than that of humans and animals [14].
Yet another Europe wide study conducted (2005 &2010) to assess ' the Levels of approval for embryonic and non-embryonic stem cell research and gene therapy' the authors noted increase in the percentage of people accepting the embryonic stem cell research under strict laws of regulation (from 36 to 51) [15].In accordance are the responses of our graduates towards animal cloning wherein, 94% disapprove or approve with restriction.
In conclusion, since many a times social and ethical issues are complex and subjective to a particular scenario, substantial subject knowledge is advantageous to arrive at an appropriate decision

Fig. 5 :
Fig. 5: Alumni responses in percentage on whether or not donation done for social cause

Fig. 1 :Fig. 2 :Fig. 3 :Fig. 4
Fig.1: The alumni responses in percentage for their opinion on "whether a lifesaving drug be patented for prolonged years"