Emerging biotechnologies: full report - Nuffield Council on Bioethics

Table of Contents
<strong>Nuffield</strong> <strong>Council</strong> on Bioethics ...................................................................................... iii
Acknowledgments ....................................................................................................... v
Foreword .................................................................................................................... vii
Members of the Working Party ................................................................................... ix
Terms of reference ..................................................................................................... xi
Summary ................................................................................................................. xvii
Introduction: a guide for the reader ............................................................................. 1
Part 1 ..................................................................................................... 5
Chapter 1 - The biotechnology wager .......................................................... 8
The biotechnology wager ............................................................................................ 8
<strong>Emerging</strong> .................................................................................................................. 13
Opportunity costs and counterfactuals ...................................................................... 14
Contingency and its consequences .......................................................................... 15
Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 19
Chapter 2 - Biotechnology promises and expectations ................................ 22
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 22
In what developments are we interested?................................................................. 22
Biotechnology visions ............................................................................................... 33
Methodological scepticism ........................................................................................ 36
Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 38
Chapter 3 - The threefold challenge of emerging <strong>biotechnologies</strong> ................ 40
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 40
Uncertainty ................................................................................................................ 41
Ambiguity .................................................................................................................. 44
Transformative potential ........................................................................................... 48
Framing emerging <strong>biotechnologies</strong> ........................................................................... 50
Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 52
Chapter 4 - Public ethics and the governance of emerging <strong>biotechnologies</strong> .. 56
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 56
Public interest and the public good ........................................................................... 57
Public ethics .............................................................................................................. 61
Public ethics in situ ................................................................................................... 65
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