Policy-Making and Systemic Complexity

Synthetic biology has spawned a debate about how society and the international community should go about policy-making, especially given the potential for both transformative benefits and existential threats. One of the significant contributions of “The Ethics of Synthetic Biology: Next Steps and Pr...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Bedau, Mark A. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Published: 2014
In: The Hastings Center report
Year: 2014, Volume: 44, Pages: 29-30
Online Access: Volltext (kostenfrei)
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Summary:Synthetic biology has spawned a debate about how society and the international community should go about policy-making, especially given the potential for both transformative benefits and existential threats. One of the significant contributions of “The Ethics of Synthetic Biology: Next Steps and Prior Questions,” by Kaebnick, Gusmano, and Murray, is its exploration of the difficulties of devel­oping policy that appropriately addresses the risks and benefits of synthetic biology. In this comment I want to develop this point further and emphasize how the proper methodology for addressing synthetic biology's ethical and public policy issues are affected by the unpredictable and complex causal webs in synthetic biology (which have analogs in other new and emerging technologies).
ISSN:1552-146X
Contains:Enthalten in: Hastings Center, The Hastings Center report
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1002/hast.394