Synthetic Biology: Drawing a Line in Darwin's Sand

Christopher J. Preston

Environmental Values, 2008, vol. 17, issue 1, pages 23-39

Abstract: Maintaining the coherence of the distinction between nature and artefact has long been central to environmental thinking. By building genomes from scratch out of 'bio-bricks', synthetic biology promises to create biotic artefacts markedly different from anything created thus far in biotechnology. These new biotic artefacts depart from a core principle of Darwinian natural selection - descent through modification - leaving them with no causal connection to historical evolutionary processes. This departure from the core principle of Darwinism presents a challenge to the normative foundation of a number of leading positions in environmental ethics. As a result, environmental ethicists with a commitment to the normative significance of the historical evolutionary process may see synthetic biology as a moral 'line in the sand'.

Keywords: Artefact; Darwinism; ethics; evolution; nature; synthetic biology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008

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