By: Veronique Etienne
Precautionary Principle
In
2010, the presidential bioethics commission convened and made a report for
dealing with synthetic biology. The report specially stated that there
should not be a moratorium on this kind of research and gave an 18 month
deadline for key things to be accomplished. However, not much has been accomplished; while several things are in the works, not recommendation as been
achieved and several have not even been addressed.
In 2012, with the government failing to accomplish things, others, including the UN and the ETC, started to lean on synthetic biology...or at least the lack of mandatory regulations regarding it. Over 100 organizations, including the ETC, IATP, and IRT, banned together and made a report, on similar to the Commission's that suggested that encouraging innovation was not cause enough to allow synthetic biology research to continue.
The Principles for the Oversight of Synthetic Biology report suggests a moratorium on synthetic biology until regulations are set in place, in addition to a ban on using the human genome in this line of research. Additionally, U.N officials havecalled for better monitoring of this type of research, as the potential for exploitation for use in bio-terrorism/ biological weapons is great.
Furthermore, just this year, there was a call to prevent a synthetic biology project from being fundable on kickstarter-yes, they want to put it in the unfundable category, which includes porn and guns. The project is aimed at developing and releasing a glowing plant from the laboratory. The premise of the project is to help reduce the need for electricity and use plants as a more sustainable light resource. *Note: this project was not banned by the U.S government and it obtained over 800 backers contributing a total of $484, 013 USD-this far surpassed their goal of $65,000.
In 2012, with the government failing to accomplish things, others, including the UN and the ETC, started to lean on synthetic biology...or at least the lack of mandatory regulations regarding it. Over 100 organizations, including the ETC, IATP, and IRT, banned together and made a report, on similar to the Commission's that suggested that encouraging innovation was not cause enough to allow synthetic biology research to continue.
The Principles for the Oversight of Synthetic Biology report suggests a moratorium on synthetic biology until regulations are set in place, in addition to a ban on using the human genome in this line of research. Additionally, U.N officials havecalled for better monitoring of this type of research, as the potential for exploitation for use in bio-terrorism/ biological weapons is great.
Furthermore, just this year, there was a call to prevent a synthetic biology project from being fundable on kickstarter-yes, they want to put it in the unfundable category, which includes porn and guns. The project is aimed at developing and releasing a glowing plant from the laboratory. The premise of the project is to help reduce the need for electricity and use plants as a more sustainable light resource. *Note: this project was not banned by the U.S government and it obtained over 800 backers contributing a total of $484, 013 USD-this far surpassed their goal of $65,000.
But
wait,... there's hope. At least the NIH has guidelines in place that
at least address the containment and proper use of synthetic biology (updated
just this month).
Check out the glowing plants kickstarter video
Check out the glowing plants kickstarter video
The Brits are always so conservative
ReplyDeleteJust as we widespread fear of GMOs, vaccines and the dreaded gluten, people fear what they don't understand. In other words, most people, including government officials live in fear of countless non-existent threats.
ReplyDeleteI believe improving science education will be key in funding/allowing research as goals become more mysterious the layman. Not to pawn all of the responsibility off, us science folk will need to become better able to explain the science in an easily digestible way to people with no science background.