Abstract
The book considers the relationship between governance and participation, and the ways participation has been understood, framed, and applied in the context of synthetic biology (SB) governance. Based on questions about the scope, purpose, and responsibilities assigned to public participation activities, the authors present a literature review of policy reports and articles on SB governance. The brief identifies key characteristics of synthetic biology, such as the complex interplay of scientific, engineering and IT expertise in the field, as well as the ethical and practical challenges these characteristics pose in designing governance frameworks. Drawing on insights from the literature, the authors contest calls for “earlier” and “more” participation because such calls fail to consider the necessary structural adjustments and resources. They offer an approach and recommendations for improving participatory governance in SB by considering questions about skills, training, organization, finances, and normative principles that researchers and policymakers need to consider when designing participation activities. The analytical framework has potential applications in other areas, including governance issues raised during health crises such as pandemics.
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Notes
- 1.
The mRNA-vaccine involves the synthetic replication of mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) that gets injected into the body and trains the immune system to build antibodies once SAR-CoV-2 proteins are detected, rather than injecting a dose of antibodies upfront.
- 2.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on January 30, 2020. The vaccine was first available under emergency use authorization in the UK since December 2, 2020 and since December 11, 2020 in the US. The FDA authorized the marketing of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on August 23, 2021. However, the speed of COVID-19 vaccine development can also be attributed to a long history of mRNA vaccine research that facilitated the process (Dolgin 2021).
- 3.
A more recent study suggests that vaccinations “prevented 14.4 million deaths from COVID-19 in 185 countries and territories between Dec 8, 2020, and Dec 8, 2021” (Watson et al. 2022).
- 4.
Recent findings in stem cell research have further fueled debates about the ethics of synthetic biology. Scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science generated synthetic embryos from stem cells ex utero (Tarazi et al. 2022), which, for some, produced concerns about the boundaries of science in creating life. While the prospect of synthetic human embryos might still be far away, the rapid developments in research make it all the more important to engage with ethical questions today.
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Siewert, S., Kieslich, K., Braun, M., Dabrock, P. (2023). Introduction. In: Synthetic Biology and the Question of Public Participation . SpringerBriefs in Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16004-2_1
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