Organism, machine, artifact: The conceptual and normative challenges of synthetic biology

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Highlights

  • Synthetic biology uses engineering principles to design organisms suited to human ends.

  • This issue examines conceptual, methodological and ethical challenges posed by synthetic life.

  • An overview of these challenges, as well as the contents of the special issue, is provided.

Abstract

Synthetic biology is an emerging discipline that aims to apply rational engineering principles in the design and creation of organisms that are exquisitely tailored to human ends. The creation of artificial life raises conceptual, methodological and normative challenges that are ripe for philosophical investigation. This special issue examines the defining concepts and methods of synthetic biology, details the contours of the organism–artifact distinction, situates the products of synthetic biology vis-à-vis this conceptual typology and against historical human manipulation of the living world, and explores the normative implications of these conclusions. In addressing the challenges posed by emerging biotechnologies, new light can be thrown on old problems in the philosophy of biology, such as the nature of the organism, the structure of biological teleology, the utility of engineering metaphors and methods in biological science, and humankind’s relationship to nature.

Section snippets

The role of rational engineering principles in the understanding and design of biological systems

A defining feature of synthetic biology is its attempt to apply rigorous engineering principles to the design of biological systems. This involves drawing from an expanding catalog of standardized biological ‘parts’ (e.g., genetic sequences) with well-understood, predictable and reasonably isolatable properties that can be arranged in various combinations in the service of preconceived design goals. Pablo Schyfter (this issue) documents the importance of this engineering ideal for the

Machine thinking and artificial teleology

Rational engineering approaches in biology are closely connected to the machine conception of the organism, which has its origins in Cartesian natural philosophy. Although biologists are well aware of the limitations of ‘machine thinking’ and its tensions with our current understanding of developmental systems, machine metaphors continue to pervade contemporary biological literature, biology education texts and the communication of biological research to the general public. One problem with

The organism-artifact continuum

Much of the ethical discussion surrounding synthetic biology has focused on ‘dual use’ dilemmas (wherein the epistemic and technical fruits of synthetic biology could be used for malevolent purposes) and potential unintended deleterious consequences for human health and the environment (for a discussion, see Douglas and Savulescu (2010)). There are fairly straightforward biosecurity and biohazard risks associated with (e.g.) the dissemination of the genetic sequence information of dangerous

The ethical dimensions of artificial life

Even if the ability to produce biological artifacts is nothing new, it is still possible that synthetic biology marks a shift in human attitudes toward nature. Preston (op. cit.), however, argues that the ‘ideology of control’ as exemplified by the methods and aims of synthetic biology and its predecessor technologies (such as genetic engineering) is at best an intensified expression of our post-Neolithic stance toward nature, which has involved ever increasing control over the ecology and

Acknowledgements

Sune Holm would like to thank UNIK Synthetic Biology Copenhagen and The Danish Research Council for Culture and Communication for their support. Russell Powell would like to thank the National Humanities Center and the American Council of Learned Societies for their support of this research.

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The idea for this special issue emerged from a workshop held at the University of Copenhagen in January, 2011 as a part of the UNIK Synthetic Biology project in collaboration with the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, University of Oxford.

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