Stop That!
14/03/12 17:52 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Submitted by S. Pelech - Kinexus on Wed, 03/14/2012 - 17:52.
With the advent of recombinant DNA technology more than a quarter century ago, the genie has long been out of the bottle with respect to genetic engineering of life forms. Humanity has been performing selective breeding of plants and animals for our purposes for over 10,000 years. Synthetic biology is just another advancement in our ability to modify other organisms or ourselves in an intelligent way. Calling a moratorium to stop research in synthetic biology until most of the concerns in the Synthetic Biology Project have been addressed to the proponent's satisfaction could put the US at a strong disadvantage relative to other countries that have less scruples about playing "god". Many of the recommendations of the Synthetic Biology Project appear to be quite rational, including those for better public education and the requirements for safety considerations for humans and the environment before any field trials commence. However, the recommendations related to ethics considerations that encompass religious concerns are likely to severely handicap adoption of synthetic biology research projects. Presumably the safeguards that have been implemented in the conductance of genetic engineering in the last few decades have worked well enough to also cover improvements introduced with synthetic biology-based techniques.
Link to the original blog post.
With the advent of recombinant DNA technology more than a quarter century ago, the genie has long been out of the bottle with respect to genetic engineering of life forms. Humanity has been performing selective breeding of plants and animals for our purposes for over 10,000 years. Synthetic biology is just another advancement in our ability to modify other organisms or ourselves in an intelligent way. Calling a moratorium to stop research in synthetic biology until most of the concerns in the Synthetic Biology Project have been addressed to the proponent's satisfaction could put the US at a strong disadvantage relative to other countries that have less scruples about playing "god". Many of the recommendations of the Synthetic Biology Project appear to be quite rational, including those for better public education and the requirements for safety considerations for humans and the environment before any field trials commence. However, the recommendations related to ethics considerations that encompass religious concerns are likely to severely handicap adoption of synthetic biology research projects. Presumably the safeguards that have been implemented in the conductance of genetic engineering in the last few decades have worked well enough to also cover improvements introduced with synthetic biology-based techniques.
Link to the original blog post.