Policy Brief, IRGC, 2010
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Synthetic biology is a new scientific discipline emerging from the convergence of biotechnology, genetics and advances in the systems-scale fundamental understanding of living organisms, making it possible to ‘design’ life and to radically alter what cells and organisms can achieve in a rational, systematic way. This discipline offers great promise in areas such as health and medicine, chemical manufacturing and energy generation and conversion. But there are attendant risks, not just in terms of the safety of engineered or ‘synthetic’ organisms but also in a broader sense of how such a powerful technological capacity might transform the environment and society, affect economic development, and alter existing power relationships between basic science, industry, consumers, governments, and nations.
This document develops the concept of appropriate risk governance: one that is enabling of innovation, minimises risk to people and the environment, and balances the interests and values of all relevant stakeholders. It provides suggestions for how an appropriate trade-off between these factors might be attained, and argues that regulation must not simply prohibit or restrict any development for which potential risks can be adduced but should seek the right balance between potential social benefits and dangers – even though these may both be uncertain and speculative at this early stage in the field’s evolution. The policy brief offers a series of guidelines for policymakers involved in regulating or otherwise guiding or affecting the course of synthetic biology.
Number of pages: 51 p.
ISBN: 978-2-9700672-6-9
Download:
Guidelines for the Appropriate Risk Governance of Synthetic Biology (Policy Brief), IRGC, 2010 [PDF]
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