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 />
prospective technologies from particular perspectives that rely <strong>on</strong> assumpti<strong>on</strong>s (which we<br />
discuss under the rubric of ‘framing’ in Chapter 3) drawn from outside technology, for example<br />
from cultural traditi<strong>on</strong>s and moral commitments. These range from the perspectives of<br />
‘transhumanism’, to those of groups opposed to the morally ‘dehumanising’ social<br />
c<strong>on</strong>sequences of certain forms of technological development, 148 and may be tied up with social<br />
and political objectives such as local or nati<strong>on</strong>al self-sufficiency, or globalisati<strong>on</strong>.<br />
2.35 The sociotechnical imaginaries associated with decisi<strong>on</strong>-making processes for <str<strong>on</strong>g>biotechnologies</str<strong>on</strong>g><br />
are rarely <str<strong>on</strong>g>full</str<strong>on</strong>g>y, clearly or c<strong>on</strong>sistently articulated. This can lead to an obvious problem: where<br />
people c<strong>on</strong>ceive of and evaluate prospective technologies as elements within their own<br />
pers<strong>on</strong>al understandings and visi<strong>on</strong>s of the future, the possibility of open debate about comm<strong>on</strong><br />
social objectives is diminished. This is especially the case where such decisi<strong>on</strong> making<br />
impinges <strong>on</strong> the interests of particular individuals or groups. Where these underlying beliefs and<br />
understandings are not articulated, general questi<strong>on</strong>s about how a technology can improve<br />
social c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong>s may be replaced by questi<strong>on</strong>s relating to discrete issues of cost, safety, ease<br />
of implementati<strong>on</strong>, usefulness, impact, etc, which appear to have determinate answers,<br />
although these ‘answers’ add up, collectively, to a visi<strong>on</strong> of the future that has not been debated<br />
and may be significantly less desirable to some than to others. 149<br />
C H A P T E R 2<br />
Procedural narratives<br />
2.36 The presentati<strong>on</strong> of particular <str<strong>on</strong>g>biotechnologies</str<strong>on</strong>g> is often set in the c<strong>on</strong>text of grander narratives.<br />
Synthetic biology has been described as “the third industrial revoluti<strong>on</strong>” 150 and references to<br />
previous, ec<strong>on</strong>omically important technologies are offered as precedents to encourage or justify<br />
commercial and political investments. For example, a Royal Academy of Engineering <str<strong>on</strong>g>report</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong><br />
synthetic biology states that “many commentators now believe that synthetic biology has the<br />
potential for major wealth generati<strong>on</strong> by means of the development of major new industries,<br />
much as, for example the semi-c<strong>on</strong>ductor did in the last century”. 151 This alludes to a very<br />
comm<strong>on</strong> asserti<strong>on</strong>: that while the 20 th Century was ‘the age of physics’, the 21 st Century will be<br />
‘the age of biology’. 152<br />
2.37 These grander narratives can be seen mutually reflected in papers and research proposals,<br />
science policy documents and science journalism. A notable feature of these narratives is the<br />
use of a number of recurring metaphors, many taken from informati<strong>on</strong> technology. In<br />
discussi<strong>on</strong>s of both synthetic biology and stem cell biology, for example, there is frequent<br />
appeal to the idea of “reprogramming” cells. 153 The widely publicised experiment referred to<br />
above, in which the DNA of a Mycoplasma capricolum cell was replaced by an entirely synthetic<br />
148 Transhumanism (in this sense) is an ideology that valorises the transformati<strong>on</strong> of the human c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong> through technologies,<br />
for example, to promote life extensi<strong>on</strong>, cognitive and physical enhancement. See: Bostrom N (2005) A history of<br />
transhumanist thought Journal of Evoluti<strong>on</strong> and Technology 14: 1-25. Others see a bias in favour of high technology<br />
approaches as technologies as threatening to biodiversity, agriculture and human rights. See, for example, the ETC Group:<br />
http://www.etcgroup.org.<br />
149 A well-known example here is the debate c<strong>on</strong>cerning GM crops where (at least during the early stages) the beliefs and<br />
approaches underpinning positi<strong>on</strong>s <strong>on</strong> both ‘sides’ of the debate sometimes appeared obscured, with the public debate itself<br />
explicitly focusing <strong>on</strong> the ‘safety’ of the crops rather than <strong>on</strong> the value judgments of the participants (such as the desirability<br />
or otherwise of a profit motive, commercial c<strong>on</strong>trol of genetic resources and views <strong>on</strong> power dynamics.) See, for example,<br />
Wilsd<strong>on</strong> J and Willis R (2004) See-through science: why public engagement needs to move upstream, available at:<br />
http://www.demos.co.uk/files/Seethroughsciencefinal.pdf?1240939425, p27.<br />
150 See: The Royal Society of Chemistry (2009) A third industrial revoluti<strong>on</strong> Integrative Biology 1: 148-9.<br />
151 The Royal Academy of Engineering (2009) Synthetic biology: scope, applicati<strong>on</strong>s, and implicati<strong>on</strong>s available at:<br />
http://www.raeng.org.uk/news/publicati<strong>on</strong>s/list/<str<strong>on</strong>g>report</str<strong>on</strong>g>s/Synthetic_biology.pdf.<br />
152 The current BBSRC delivery plan opens with a particularly explicit example: “The 21st Century will be the age of bioscience.<br />
Driven by new c<strong>on</strong>cepts and technologies, a biological revoluti<strong>on</strong> is unfolding in the same way that advances in physics<br />
shaped the early 20 th Century and great leaps in electr<strong>on</strong>ics and computing transformed our lives over the past 40 years.”<br />
See: BBSRC (2011) BBSRC delivery plan 2011-2015: maximising ec<strong>on</strong>omic growth in the age of bioscience, available at:<br />
http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/web/FILES/Publicati<strong>on</strong>s/delivery_plan_2011_2015.pdf.<br />
153 Gallivan JP (2007) Toward reprogramming bacteria with small molecules and RNA Current Opini<strong>on</strong> in Chemical Biology 11:<br />
612-9.<br />
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