ABSTRACT
In a world of nations, international responsibility implies national responsibility. International interactions and effects attributable to biotechnology originate within national boundaries and, crossing them, impact upon other nations. International efforts to control the spread of diseases communicable among animals and plants have long demonstrated the permeability of national frontiers. Radio, television, and the press carry international news dispatches regarding artificial hearts, organ transplants, and new forms of birth control, “test-tube” babies, and controversies over pesticides and experiments with recombinant DNA. The multiplicity and diversity of the international organizations in relation to biotechnology has made it a subject for international concern that even now may be generating new intergovernmental arrangements, and perhaps new principles of international law. Explosive population growth has been a contentious issue in many countries and has complicated international relations. The commercialization of biotechnology is thus extending or enlarging the dimensions of international biopolicy.
