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Team:Freiburg/Ethics
From 2008.igem.org
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Bioengineers certainly walk the thin line between manipulating life and creating life. Especially, uniqueness of living as part of the human self image confronts with the manipulation and creation of life. Creation of life was only related to god for ages while nowadays education and science change the picture rapidly, leading to a controversial discussion based on a mixture of fear, ignorance and well grounded critique.<br> | Bioengineers certainly walk the thin line between manipulating life and creating life. Especially, uniqueness of living as part of the human self image confronts with the manipulation and creation of life. Creation of life was only related to god for ages while nowadays education and science change the picture rapidly, leading to a controversial discussion based on a mixture of fear, ignorance and well grounded critique.<br> | ||
In times of unlimited communication and information access, nearly everybody has the possibility to get DNA sequences from pathogenic organisms. It has never before been so easy to create biological weapons, for example Viruses. Two experiments have illustrated the possibilities of abuse by the technique of synthetic biology. In 2002, scientists succeeded in rebuilding a Polio Virus by ordering synthetic DNA from commercial companies and assembled the Virus in their laboratory. Even more spectacular is an attempt by American scientists in 2005. They had successfully tried to reconstruct the genetic information of the flu virus responsible for the highly contagious Spanish flu. The Virus was extinct, but its RNA could be isolated from the tissue of deceased, sequenced and finally the original virus was synthesized. | In times of unlimited communication and information access, nearly everybody has the possibility to get DNA sequences from pathogenic organisms. It has never before been so easy to create biological weapons, for example Viruses. Two experiments have illustrated the possibilities of abuse by the technique of synthetic biology. In 2002, scientists succeeded in rebuilding a Polio Virus by ordering synthetic DNA from commercial companies and assembled the Virus in their laboratory. Even more spectacular is an attempt by American scientists in 2005. They had successfully tried to reconstruct the genetic information of the flu virus responsible for the highly contagious Spanish flu. The Virus was extinct, but its RNA could be isolated from the tissue of deceased, sequenced and finally the original virus was synthesized. | ||
| - | Information on the DNA or RNA of pathogenic organisms may be received from different databases and scientific publications. | + | Information on the DNA or RNA of pathogenic organisms may be received from different databases and scientific publications. Synthetic sequences can be ordered from specialized companies, for menageable prices. Finally, these sequences could be assembled to highly effective pathogens. |
Every society has to deal with the fact that some people do not care about the accuracy of their behaviour. | Every society has to deal with the fact that some people do not care about the accuracy of their behaviour. | ||
Revision as of 00:43, 29 October 2008
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Safety |
_ethics
IntroductionThe experience, last years iGEM mediated us, clearly shows that students are willing to develop useful applications. They provided medical, environmental or mathematical/computational applications, with no reason to hide themselves from other scientific projects. The fact that students already deal with real scientific projects should expand their sense of responsibility. Normally universities provide basic knowledge and practical skills, but the opportunity to establish own scientific projects is rare. On the one hand enabling students to develop own projects is reasonable, on the other hand a safety problem could occur if this trust is betrayed.
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