Kaebnick G.E., Murray T.H. (eds.) Synthetic Biology and Morality: Artificial Life and the Bounds of Nature

Boston: The MIT Press, 2013. — 222 p.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.
ContributorsJohn 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 SandlerSeries ForewordThe Human Relationship to Nature
Appeals to Nature and the Natural in Debates about Synthetic Biology
Creating Life: Synthetic Biology and Ethics
Engineered Microbes in Industry and Science: A New Human Relationship to Nature?
The Value of Synthetic Organisms
Lessons from Environmental Ethics about the Intrinsic Value of Synthetic Life
Three Puzzles Regarding the Moral Status of Synthetic Organisms
Synthetic Bacteria, Natural Processes, and Intrinsic Value
Values and Public Policy
Synthetic Biology and Public Reason
Biotechnology as Cultural Meaning: Reflections on the Moral Reception of Synthetic Biology
“Teaching Humanness” Claims in Synthetic Biology and Public Policy Bioethics
About the Authors