The President’s Bioethics Commission Misses the Mark on Synthetic Biology: “Prudent Vigilance” a Poor Substitute for Precaution
By Eric Hoffman, Biopolitical Times guest contributor,
Biopolitical Times
| 12. 02. 2010
On November 16 and 17, President Obama’s
Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues
announced its draft recommendations on the oversight and regulation of
synthetic biology. These recommendations were the long awaited response
to Craig Venter’s
announcement in May 2010 that he and his team had created the world’s first organism with a fully synthetic genome.
The
Commission’s study supporting these recommendations, requested by the
President after Venter’s announcement, researched the implications of
synthetic biology, including potential benefits and risks of the
emerging technology. After two public meetings - one in July and one in
September - the commission used its third and final public hearing on
synthetic biology to announce and discuss its draft recommendations. The
recommendations have not yet been posted officially, but we have
transcribed them from the webcast of the November meeting, and are
making them available
here.
The
Commission should be applauded for adopting an open and transparent
deliberation process when reviewing synthetic biology. All meetings were
open to the public and available as live and archived webcasts. The
Commission also intentionally reached out...
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