ABSTRACT
Dr. Leo Fretz, the Chairman, asked Dr. Tom Claes whether he felt that the public fear towards biotechnology is irrational and whether a public consensus should be reached before political decisions are taken. The patent people — and Dr. Ulrich Schatz included himself here — made winning speeches in the sense that they have not sufficiently indicated what they consider as the real problems in the field. The first statement was made by Dr. Huub Schellekens, the Chairman of the Dutch Committee on Genetic Modification and a member of the Committee on Biotechnology and Animals. The second statement was made by Isabelle Meister, Greenpeace International's Genetic Engineering Co-ordinator. The third statement was made by Dr. Claes, post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Philosophy and Moral Science at the University of Ghent. Many of the opponents of biotechnology patents who spoke at the workshop raise the question of morality at the beginning of the life cycle of a biotechnological product.
