Download in the projects of synthesizing organ- isms. The text

Books
Clearly, there have been important
advances in the field of restoration in
recent decades (e.g., better planting
models and technological tools, mainstreaming the field into jobs, legislation,
science), but the science and practice of
restoration have also encountered a
few major stumbling blocks. Divergent
trends have developed, underpinned
by differing opinions about how ambitious we should be in setting restoration
goals within specific landscapes (e.g.,
to return an ecosystem to some historical state or to restore certain ecosystem
functions and services). According to
one interviewed practitioner, we have
barely begun the task at hand, which
makes it too soon to decide how ambitious the restoration projects of the
future should be. Woodworth, himself, believes that there is considerable
room for consensus between these restoration trends.
Our Once and Future Planet is a useful
platform for anyone pondering where
ecological restoration stands in the
future environmental movement—or
for anyone intending to shape its future.
LUKE P. SHOO
Luke P. Shoo ([email protected]) is a
postdoctoral research fellow in the School
of Biological Sciences at the University of
Queensland, in St Lucia,
Queensland, Australia.
doi:10.1093/biosci/biu089
THE NATURE OF BEING A
MICROBE
Synthetic Biology and Morality:
Artificial Life and the Bounds of
Nature. Gregory E. Kaebnick and
Thomas H. Murray, eds. MIT Press,
2013. 214 pp., illus. $21.00 (ISBN
9780262519595 paper).
S
ynthetic Biology and Morality:
Artificial Life and the Bounds of
Nature is the outcome of a meeting
http://bioscience.oxfordjournals.org
on the ethics of synthetic biology,
held in 2010 at the famous Hastings
Center. As most publications issued
from the Hastings Center do, this work
addresses the depth and breadth of
ethical discussions.
Two official approaches to the ethical issues that stem from biotechnological innovations are currently
the most widely developed: The first
addresses issues of bioethics, as raised
by Leon Kass, the former director of
the President’s Council on Bioethics;
the second is focused on ethical, legal,
and societal impacts. The former is
centered on the integrity of human
nature and is therefore not immediately relevant to the discussion of
the synthesis of microorganisms. The
latter is purposed toward how future
applications of synthetic biology will
affect humans but does not question
the cultural values and meanings
attached to the engineering of synthetic organisms. To move beyond the
limits of these mainstream approaches
was the aim of Paul Rabinow and
Gaymon Bennet’s (2012) Designing
Human Practice, but in their effort to
shape a collaborative ethics program
for the Synthetic Biology Engineering
Research Center, they did not venture
a moral valuation.
What is remarkable about this collection of essays, edited by Gregory
E. Kaebnick and Thomas H. Murray,
is that it breaks free of both mainstream approaches and directly raises
the question of whether the design of
synthetic organisms is morally good,
morally bad, or neither. In keeping
with another recent attempt to bring
ethics to the laboratory (Van der Burg
and Swierstra 2013), this book demonstrates a shift from the assessment
of potential practical applications to
a discussion of design projects. It is
a welcome, robust counterpoint to
the current trend of reducing morality to cost–benefit analysis and risk
assessment.
Working with the assumption that
no technology is without value, these
essays scrutinize the viewpoints—
from both a human and an ecological perspective—that are embedded
in the projects of synthesizing organisms. The text never enters the realm
of theological debate. Most of the
contributors assume secular interpretations of the “playing God” argument based on their conviction that
metaphysics underlies each project
and influences the designers’ moral
valuations.
Given the diversity of research
agendas that are found under the
umbrella of synthetic biology, there
are a variety of interpretations regarding the role of nature as it relates
to humans. The BioBricks approach,
based on a reductionist view of life,
seems to reinforce the modernist
ideal of mankind in control of nature.
The protocell and the minimal cell
approaches may be supported by the
opposing emergentist view of life, in
which increasingly complex patterns
arise in an uncontrolled environment.
The boundary between what is natural and what is artificial is central
to determining the “intrinsic worth”
(using Ron Sandel’s terminology) of
the objects designed in synthetic biology. Three essays in this volume convincingly argue that this criterion is
not really helpful: Because the equation between living and natural no
longer holds firm, more subtle distinctions between the teleology inherent in natural and that in synthetic
bacteria are needed.
Synthetic Biology and Morality eludes
any dogmatism by presenting contrasting positions on moral issues. A
similar yet more pronounced approach
can be found in Kaebnick (2013):
Contributor Joachim Boldt argues
that synthetic biology is intrinsically
August 2014 / Vol. 64 No. 8 • BioScience 745
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morally troubling because of its ambition to create living beings as objects,
not subjects, whereas Kaebnick (2013)
proposes a more nuanced evaluation
based on two criteria: the intent to alter
or accommodate nature in the process
and the objects of design being microorganisms or more-complex organisms. The latter distinction has often
been used to claim that synthetic biology does not raise any moral concern
because it deals only with microbes
for improving human well-being, but
the intrinsic value of microbes may
soon cause further debate. The human
body comprises more numerous species of commensal bacteria than it
does individual cells. As microorganisms associated with human bodies
form complex ecosystems, their moral
status could be redefined.
Finally, the most innovative feature of this volume is the discussion
of the links between ethics and public policy from two opposing views.
John Mandle, adopting a Rawlsian
position, argues that moral disagreements should not affect public reason.
Accordingly, political decisions should
rely exclusively on shared values, such
as environmental concerns, which
seem to raise the most serious obstacle to the development of synthetic
biology. Using a more Foucauldian
argument, Bruce Jennings makes the
case for a public policy based on the
broad moral and civic narratives tacitly woven in the design of synthetic
organisms. For political decisions, it
matters whether the organisms are
humanmade or the result of evolutionary history, whether synthetic biology encourages or undermines the
invention of alternatives breaking with
the modernist tradition of appropriating nature.
In current practices of design, there
is little concern with the actual ontological status of the designed creatures.
There is an “ontological indifference”
(Peter Galison’s phrase) in synthetic
biology—and in the technosciences
in general—that may hamper a public
dialogue, as well, given the significance
placed on ontological categories (e.g.,
natural versus artificial, living versus
nonliving) by spontaneous and divergent public valuation. If we agree that
public policy should engage all stakeholders, including researchers, industrial managers, and banks, as well as
the public, we must convince synthetic
biologists that ontology matters.
This book is not only an exciting
addition to the literature of bioethics but a great contribution to ethical
reflections on technology in general. I
hope it will find many readers.
References cited
Kaebnick GE, ed. 2013. Taking Sides: Clashing
Views on Bioethical Issues. McGraw Hill.
Rabinow P, Bennet G. 2012. Designing Human
Practices: An Experiment with Synthetic
Biology. University of Chicago Press.
Van der Burg S, Swierstra T, eds. 2013. Ethics on
the Laboratory Floor. Palgrave MacMillan.
BERNADETTE BENSAUDE
VINCENT
Bernadette Bensaude Vincent
([email protected]) is a Professor
of philosophy at the University Paris 1
Panthéon-Sorbonne, France.
doi:10.1093/biosci/biu091
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746 BioScience • August 2014 / Vol. 64 No. 8
http://bioscience.oxfordjournals.org