Re: do you know of any ethical implications when using enzymes in experiments?

Hello.  Firstly let me refer you to this document  http://www.babonline.org/bab/babcethics.pdf  Its an outline for the 
international code of ethics.

To answer you question I would say there would be very few (if any) 
situations where experimentation involving those enzyme would be 
unethical.  Rather than questioning the ethical implications of using 
enzymes themselves the bigger questions would be the purpose of the 
experiment(s), the honest use of allocated funds etc.  For example, 
alcalase is used to enhance fermentation in the production of ethanol 
particuarly for use as an alternative fuel source.  I would say this is 
highly ethical assuming the criteria in performing the experiment were 
honest and in the interest for the greater good of science.

As far as collecting the enzymes the most popular and easiest way to do so 
would be through the transformation of bacteria.  This is a regular 
practice in biochemistry.  I can not think of any situations where 
unethical procedures would have to be performed to collect a particular 
enzyme.  Do a google search of bacterial transformation.  In a laymans 
terms this is basically where you introduce the genetic sequence of the 
desired protein/enzyme into the genome of a bacteria and as a result the 
bacteria "produce" this protein.  Imagine the bacteria are like little 
factories that are being programed to produce enzymes.