Justice in the access to emerging technology: gene therapy from Latin America

Abstract

Health technology is advancing rapidly in the pursuit of improving the human condition, but technological innovation involves technical, methodological, legal, ethical, and moral issues that vary depending on the socio-cultural context. Thus, we recognize a geographically determined problem, the fair access to emerging technology pressing in Latin America. Gene therapy is taken as an example to recognize, from a literature review, why academics favor or oppose the technological advance in genetics and the use of gene therapy in human beings. Finally, we conclude that social justice must go beyond the simple distribution of goods, materials, and resources. That is why we emphasize the need for a transdisciplinary approach that accompanies technological progress from the legal and philosophical point of view and propose the bioethical value of solidarity as the basement for future decision-making.