Abstract
“Gut reaction,” “gut feeling,” and “have you got the guts for it?” take on new meanings now that scientists explore how our gut bacteria not only defend us against disease-causing microbes (Courage, 2015; McGreevey, 2014; Yong, 2014) but also may affect who we are. Mobilizing microbes for good causes is spawning industries. Microbiome banks, similar to blood banks, provide specimens for fecal transplants (Belluck, 2014; Courage, 2014a). Full understanding is lacking, treatments could have unintended consequences (Gallagher, 2015), and the FDA is unsure how to categorize these new options (Shaffer, 2014). Large-scale efforts to collect and catalog personal microbiomes are underway in at least three countries (Stein, 2013). Although such databases raise privacy issues (Shaw, 2014), they may help researchers develop “personalized medicine.”
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© 2016 Seana Moran and Ria Citrin
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Citrin, R. (2016). The Microbiome. In: Ethical Ripples of Creativity and Innovation. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137505545_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137505545_10
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