Bioprospecting microbial biodiversity for sustainable futures: An ethics of exploitation?

Bioprospecting is the systematic searching for genetic or biochemical information in nature for someuseful purpose. We review ethical issues bioprospecting and examine novel practices of bioprospectingin microbial biodiversity. Combining consideration from engineering ethics and environmental ethics,we outline a heuristic checklist for moral justifiability of a microbial bioprospecting. The checklistconsists of a Precautionary Principle, a Biocentric Principle of Proportionality, and a Lockean Proviso.