Synthetic Biology and Morality

Description

A range of views on the morality of synthetic biology and its place in public policy and political discourse.

Synthetic biology, which aims to design and build organisms that serve human needs, has potential applications that range from producing biofuels to programming human behavior. The emergence of this new form of biotechnology, however, raises a variety of ethical questions—first and foremost, whether synthetic biology is intrinsically troubling in moral terms. Is it an egregious example of scientists “playing God”? Synthetic Biology and Morality takes on this threshold ethical question, as well as others that follow, offering a range of philosophical and political perspectives on the power of synthetic biology.

The contributors consider the basic question of the ethics of making new organisms, with essays that lay out the conceptual terrain and offer opposing views of the intrinsic moral concerns; discuss the possibility that synthetic organisms are inherently valuable; and address whether, and how, moral objections to synthetic biology could be relevant to policy making and political discourse. Variations of these questions have been raised before, in debates over other biotechnologies, but, as this book shows, they take on novel and illuminating form when considered in the context of synthetic biology.

Contributors
John Basl, Mark A. Bedau, Joachim Boldt, John H. Evans, Bruce Jennings, Gregory E. Kaebnick, Ben Larson, Andrew Lustig, Jon Mandle, Thomas H. Murray, Christopher J. Preston, Ronald Sandler

Gregory E. Kaebnick is a Research Scholar at the Hastings Center, editor of the Hastings Center Report, and editor of the book The Ideal of Nature: Debates about Biotechnology and the Environment.

Thomas H. Murray is President Emeritus and Senior Research Scholar at the Hastings Center and author of The Worth of a Child.

Gregory E. Kaebnick is a Research Scholar at the Hastings Center, editor of the Hastings Center Report, and editor of the book The Ideal of Nature: Debates about Biotechnology and the Environment.

Thomas H. Murray is President Emeritus and Senior Research Scholar at the Hastings Center and author of The Worth of a Child.

Gregory E. Kaebnick is a Research Scholar at the Hastings Center, editor of the Hastings Center Report, and editor of the book The Ideal of Nature: Debates about Biotechnology and the Environment.

Mark A. Bedau is Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at Reed College, Adjunct Professor of Systems Science at Portland State University, and Editor-in-Chief of the MIT Press journal Artificial Life.

Ronald Sandler is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Northeastern University.

Christopher J. Preston is Professor of Philosophy and a Research Fellow in the Mansfield Center’s Program on Ethics and Public Affairs at the University of Montana.US

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