Synthetic Biology Building on Nature's Inspiration: Interdisciplinary Research Team Summaries (2010) / Chapter Skim
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IDR Team Summary 2: What are the significant differences, if any, between risk assessment capacity and religious analyses of the moral permissibility for synthetic biology applications and other biotechnology applications?
IDR Team Summary 2: What are the significant differences, if any, between risk assessment capacity and religious analyses of the moral permissibility for synthetic biology applications and other biotechnology applications?
Pages 19-24
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From page 19... ...
The familiar safety issues raised by biotechnology were now qualitatively altered to include bioterrorism, leading to extended discussions about scientific freedom versus the asserted need to prohibit some forms of research or to censor some forms of scientific communication. More generally, risk assessment is a generic problem for all new technologies.
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From page 20... ...
The sheer ability to construct a living organism is a fundamental break with history of the human species, one that may lead to profound questioning of deeply held religious and cultural beliefs about the origins and meaning of life. As one observer noted wryly, "God has competition." If life is not a mystery but rather a predictable consequence of combining elements of the material world, it bespeaks a mastery over creation that has led to deep distress in public debates surrounding IVF in the 1980s and cloning in the 1990s.
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From page 21... ...
Key Questions • What are the significant differences, if any, in risk assessment capacity for synthetic biology applications as opposed to other biotechnology applications? Do current regulatory structures and ethical analyses adequately capture the uncertainties associated with synthetic biology?
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From page 22... ...
Peeples, Graduate Science Writing Student, New York Univrsity The Interdisciplinary Research (IDR) team, comprising 13 scientists and bioethicists, considered ethical and policy issues at the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative Conference on Synthetic Biology in 2009.
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From page 23... ...
Precautionary interventions are necessary throughout the production process. Again, policies already in place could be used as guidelines for improved ethics training for students and scientists; monitoring of key tools, techniques and resources to keep tabs on who is doing what with the technology and where; maintaining academic journal standards that scrutinize submitted papers for security implications; and proper disposal of lab waste.
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From page 24... ...
The team recommends allocating resources toward risk assessment and communication to ensure the public has the right facts, and that the benefits of the new science -- from its potential in curing diseases to creating new renewable fuel sources to cleaning up environmental messes -- are presented along with theoretical or real risks.
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