Bioethics Commission Reports on Synthetic Biology

"It's a complete 180 from the prior council," said Arthur Caplan, a University of Pennsylvania bioethicist who testified before the commission.

"It sees its mission, and says so very overtly, as getting involved in practical policy guidance. We're not getting the philosophical treatise treatment from this council."

Links:

Presidential commission urges caution on 'synthetic biology', Rob Stein, Washington Post, December 16, 2010

NEW DIRECTIONS: The Ethics of Synthetic Biology and Emerging Technologies

The Bioethics Commission and Synthetic Biology, Summer McGee, PhD, The Bioethics Channel, December 10, 2010

The Ethics of Synthetic Cells, Glenn McGee, PhD, The Bioethics Channel, May 28, 2010

The Ethics of Synthetic Cells

Glenn McGee, PhD

May 28, 2010

What have we done? And what does it mean?

Those are the questions after headlines exploded with news of a synthetic cell created from a made-from-scratch genome.

Lorell LaBoube, host of The Bioethics Channel, discusses the ethical implications of this emerging story with Glenn McGee, PhD, the John B. Francis Chair at the Center for Practical Bioethics.

Links:

Podcast, 16 minutes 35 seconds

How We Created the First Synthetic Cell, J. Craig Venter and Daniel Gibson, Wall Street Journal, May 26, 2010

Church warns cell scientists not to play God, Associated Press, May 21