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Team:TUDelft/Ethics conclusions
From 2008.igem.org
Contents |
Conclusions
In this chapter the results of the study will be summarized, conclusions will be drawn from the findings and the goals of the project will be further discussed. In addition, future research and the value of the information of this report to the iGEM organizers will be suggested.
6.1 Research summary
Since the reintroduction of the term “synthetic biology” a simultaneous effort has been made by social scientists and natural scientists to make synthetic biology a success. There is still a long road ahead, but at the least, the ethical issues that play a role in synthetic biology research and product development have been recognized and are currently being thought over. The key ethical issues in synthetic biology regard biosafety, biosecurity, naturalness concepts and intellectual property rights.
Over the past decades, biology has stated to become an engineering study and with the introduction of synthetic biology in 2005, this process accelerated. Students from different disciplines can currently contribute to scientific research in an open source setting, in the synthetic biology student competition called “iGEM”. In this report, the ethical considerations that play a role in this project were investigated and the ideas the students and supervisors of the 2008 TU Delft team on the related ethical concepts have been investigated. For this investigation, a semi structured questionnaire was developed by which the participants were inquired.
It appears that ethical considerations play a role at different levels in this project. It starts with implicit assumptions on what is possible with the technology from a moral point of view, even before the project has started: first, the participants have to decide to participate. At the start of the project, a value sensitive design session was held in collaboration with the TU Delft’s Philosophy department. Values that appeared to be found important (biosecurity, transparency, safety, usefulness) show similarities with what is found important in synthetic biology ethics literature. This indicates that the team is already quite aware of the issues that may play in biotechnology research.
During the project , several ethical considerations the participants have came forward. Decisions on the biological parts used, designed and tested; ideas on the application areas, the use of recombinant DNA techniques, all are related to ethical points of view of the participants. But still, not a single general opinion could be distilled from the participants. There are clashes in scientific approach, being either fundamental or more applied. The values that were to play a role are judged on importance differently by all participants. Team members have different ideas on responsibilities towards the public, the scientific community, etc. in terms of safety, security and transparency.
It also appears that during the project, it turns out to be difficult to take all the values or ethical considerations into account. It appears that the participants feel that different issues play a role in different stages of design. Once an application is produced, the issues as proposed for synthetic biology can play a role, according to most participants, but also in design phases, thinking about applications is already necessary. A related risk/benefit analysis is currently perceived as necessary, but still lacking.
The standardization concept through the BioBrick idea in synthetic biology also experiences some resistance. Some say that biology is to complex to be standardized. Other state that the open source BioBrick approach will never generate successful products, because in the capitalist system we live in, personal gain will always be involved and hence the good products will not be added to the registry of standard biological parts.
It was also argued that currently science is already highly conceptualized: in design, concepts for proving principles are stated, which are said to be very easy. But as it appears later, testing methods have to be customized to the application that is being developed, which also means that the concepts are not as easy as is sometimes perceived. Also, in development, scientists must be aware that during the research project, practical or efficiency based decisions will not overrule ethical principles as previously assessed in value sensitive design.
6.2 Project goals
The goals of this study were twofold. The first was to investigate the ethical issues in the iGEM project, and the second to investigate the TU Delft participants’ opinions on these ethical issues and to increase awareness about these issues. This report summarized the ethical considerations in participating in iGEM and discusses several issues relating to open source novel biotechnology research. The participant’s opinions were monitored by means of a questionnaire. All participants answered that issues had been brought up that they had not considered earlier, so in that sense increasing awareness on the relevant ethical issues has also succeeded.
6.3 Further research
The research for this report was finished by September 2008. However, the iGEM project still continues until November 2008. During the final months, topics relating to some ethical principle in the project will be discussed in weekly meetings, to keep letting the participants think about the relevant societal implications of the work that is being done. These group reflections can contribute to generating further awareness of the societal issues that play, of the role of ethics in science in different phases of development, and also to the way the scientists can “sell” their research. Especially this last contribution of thinking about ethics is sometimes forgotten: by thinking about the issues in relation to the public, it becomes easier for the scientists to talk about the science of their research, to articulate their motives and to describe what their research means to society.
But there are also other things that can be done with the data in this report. It can be the basis of a modern case study in ethics education in the field of biotechnology: the moral dilemmas the participants experience, relate to real life, modern biotechnology research, something perhaps currently missing in science education. The synthetic biology case may also be discussed in other research groups, or perhaps in a “science café” setting, to make researchers aware of the ethical issues that play in modern biotechnology research, with “biology” becoming more and more “synthetic”. This case can be interesting and challenging for researchers, with the different opinions of scientists so clearly stated.
In addition, this report can be the basis for improving the relation between considering ethics and considering science in the iGEM project. See the next paragraph for a summary on the possibilities for the iGEM competition organizers.
iGEM recommendations
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