Ethical, Legal & Social Issues

 

Legal Issues

     Although there are not many issues with biomimetics dealing with mimicking nature, there are some issues when it comes to biomimetics that mimic humans. For example, Bertolt Meyer’s “Rex the Bionic Man” is a robot “man” made entirely of artificial limbs and organs and robotic parts. It has a “heart” that uses an electric pump to course artificial blood, which carries oxygen just like real blood. The robot has a speech generator that “listens” when spoken to and can respond back. The main issue was whether the technological advancements should be launched before a debate about the advancements (theguardian.com). Another issue that may come about is if prosthetics become more useful that healthy, real limbs, a market might develop. One example of this is plastic surgery. Even if a person’s body is perfectly healthy, they might still surgically alter it to make it even better (businessinsider.com). This could bring up issues of legality. Should people be allowed to purposely get rid of healthy limbs in order to “upgrade” to even better limbs? Might these limbs have unseen effects that could potentially damage the rest of the limb or body? These would all be things that could be up for question in the future of legalizing more advanced prosthetic limbs.

 

Social/Ethical Issues

     As said before, there aren't many social or ethical issues dealing with biomimietics because most of the products are made to directly solve a problem in society. This is a good thing. However, nothing is perfect, and there are a few things that concern people. One example of this is that some people feel that as nature is being studied, it is not being respected. (The Guardian.com) The hope is that scientists will observe animals for research while still treating them humanely.