The Ethics of Protocells
Moral and Social Implications of Creating Life in the Laboratory
- Publisher
- The MIT Press
- Initial publish date
- Apr 2009
- Category
- Ethics, General
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9780262512695
- Publish Date
- Apr 2009
- List Price
- $34.00 USD
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Description
Experts explore the potential benefits, risks, and moral aspects of protocell technology, which creates simple forms of life from nonliving material.
Teams of scientists around the world are racing to create protocells--microscopic, self-organizing entities that spontaneously assemble from simple organic and inorganic materials. The creation of fully autonomous protocells--a technology that can, for all intents and purposes, be considered literally alive--is only a matter of time. This book examines the pressing social and ethical issues raised by the creation of life in the laboratory. Protocells might offer great medical and social benefits and vast new economic opportunities, but they also pose potential risks and threaten cultural and moral norms against tampering with nature and “playing God.” The Ethics of Protocells offers a variety of perspectives on these concerns. After a brief survey of current protocell research (including the much-publicized “top-down” strategy of J. Craig Venter and Hamilton Smith, for which they have received multimillion dollar financing from the U.S. Department of Energy), the chapters treat risk, uncertainty, and precaution; lessons from recent history and related technologies; and ethics in a future society with protocells. The discussions range from new considerations of the precautionary principle and the role of professional ethicists to explorations of what can be learned from society's experience with other biotechnologies and the open-source software movement.
Contributors
Mark A. Bedau, Gaymon Bennett, Giovanni Boniolo, Carl Cranor, Bill Durodié, Mickey Gjerris, Brigitte Hantsche-Tangen, Christine Hauskeller, Andrew Hessel, Brian Johnson, George Khushf, Emily C. Parke, Alain Pottage, Paul Rabinow, Per Sandin, Joachim Schummer, Mark Triant, Laurie Zoloth
About the authors
Mark A. Bedau is Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at Reed College, Adjunct Professor of Systems Science at Portland State University, and Editor-in-Chief of the MIT Press journal Artificial Life.
Emily C. Parke is Business Manager at ProtoLife Srl.
Giovanni Boniolo's profile page
Brigitte Hantsche-Tangen's profile page
Christine Hauskeller's profile page
Paul Rabinow is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley. His most recent books include Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics (with Hubert Dreyfus) and The Foucault Reader.
Joachim Schummer's profile page
Laurie Zoloth is Professor of Social Ethics and Jewish Philosophy and Director of the Program in Jewish Studies at San Francisco State University.
Arthur L. Caplan is Director of the Division of Medical Ethics in the Department of Population Health at New York University's Langone Medical Center.
