Emerging biotechnologies: full report - Nuffield Council on Bioethics
Emerging biotechnologies: full report - Nuffield Council on Bioethics
Emerging biotechnologies: full report - Nuffield Council on Bioethics
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E m e r g i n g b i o t e c h n o l o g i e s<br />
of harm mean different things to different people. We nevertheless identify three key values to<br />
qualify the pursuit of benefit and avoidance of harm at a public level (equity, solidarity and<br />
sustainability).<br />
4.57 In setting out an ethical approach we wished to avoid the temptati<strong>on</strong> to propose simply a<br />
supplementary set of ‘decisi<strong>on</strong> rules’ that can be applied to a set of available opti<strong>on</strong>s to select<br />
an ‘ethically preferable’ opti<strong>on</strong>. It would not be possible to establish a single set of rules that<br />
would operate c<strong>on</strong>sistently for early-stage emerging <str<strong>on</strong>g>biotechnologies</str<strong>on</strong>g> where the applicati<strong>on</strong>s and<br />
products are speculative, subject to high levels of unpredictability and without clear precedent.<br />
Instead, we have proposed a number of procedural virtues to which we believe the practice of<br />
discursive decisi<strong>on</strong> making should aspire (openness, accountability, public reas<strong>on</strong>ing, candour,<br />
enablement and cauti<strong>on</strong>). These are intended to open up decisi<strong>on</strong>s to ethical reflecti<strong>on</strong> and<br />
provide a bulwark against undue c<strong>on</strong>centrati<strong>on</strong>s of power within research systems, to render the<br />
exercise of power more transparent and deliberate, and so amenable to professi<strong>on</strong>al and<br />
democratic accountability.<br />
4.58 The choice of ethical values and procedural virtues that we advance here is, of course, no less<br />
ambiguous or c<strong>on</strong>tested than any other framing, but it has two important virtues. Firstly, in terms<br />
of procedure, it aims to ensure that questi<strong>on</strong>s of social and ethical value and c<strong>on</strong>duct are raised<br />
in public discourse and, having been raised, should be pursued al<strong>on</strong>gside questi<strong>on</strong>s of<br />
prudential values such as ec<strong>on</strong>omic return. Sec<strong>on</strong>dly, it comprises, in effect, a set of c<strong>on</strong>ceptual<br />
tools with which questi<strong>on</strong>s of value and c<strong>on</strong>duct may be addressed.<br />
4.59 In discussing the ethics of emerging <str<strong>on</strong>g>biotechnologies</str<strong>on</strong>g> we are aware that we are not the first or<br />
<strong>on</strong>ly body – and will undoubtedly not be the last – to do so, either in the particular (synthetic<br />
biology, stem cell research, stratified medicine, etc.) or the more general (emerging technology,<br />
resp<strong>on</strong>sible innovati<strong>on</strong>, etc.). The <str<strong>on</strong>g>Nuffield</str<strong>on</strong>g> <str<strong>on</strong>g>Council</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Bioethics</strong> has itself produced a number of<br />
earlier <str<strong>on</strong>g>report</str<strong>on</strong>g>s <strong>on</strong> particular c<strong>on</strong>temporary emerging <str<strong>on</strong>g>biotechnologies</str<strong>on</strong>g>, including<br />
xenotransplantati<strong>on</strong> (1996), genetically modified crops (1999) and biofuels (2011). 296 In<br />
preparing our Report, we have c<strong>on</strong>sulted many of these sources, from a number of different<br />
independent, professi<strong>on</strong>al and official bodies, nati<strong>on</strong>al and internati<strong>on</strong>al organisati<strong>on</strong>s, and from<br />
different political, legal and cultural traditi<strong>on</strong>s, although there are no doubt more that have<br />
escaped our attenti<strong>on</strong>. We have profited greatly and drawn freely from these, but we do not<br />
claim in any way to have synthesised or supplanted them. We do, however, believe that the<br />
approach advanced in this Report, if applied to the governance of biotechnology, will provide a<br />
useful tool to open up and reframe decisi<strong>on</strong> making processes in a way that makes them more<br />
ethically robust.<br />
296 Copies of all <str<strong>on</strong>g>Nuffield</str<strong>on</strong>g> <str<strong>on</strong>g>Council</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Bioethics</strong> <str<strong>on</strong>g>report</str<strong>on</strong>g>s can be accessed via: http://www.nuffieldbioethics.org/previous-projects.<br />
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