Designer Biology

The Ethics of Intensively Engineering Biological and Ecological Systems

Contributions by Immaculada de Melo Martin, Valentina Urbanek, David A. Frank University of Oregon, William Kabasenche, Nicholas Agar, S. Matthew Liao, Anders Sandberg, Rebecca Roache, Allen Thompson, Stephen Jackson, Donald S. Maier, Nicole Hassoun, Benjamin Hale, Sune Holm, Scott Simmons Edited by Ronald L. Sandler, John Basl

Publication date:

18 July 2013

Length of book:

304 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

Dimensions:

236x159mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780739178218

Advances in our scientific understanding and technological power in recent decades have dramatically amplified our capacity to intentionally manipulate complex ecological and biological systems. An implication of this is that biological and ecological problems are increasingly understood and approached from an engineering perspective. In environmental contexts, this is exemplified in the pursuits of geoengineering, designer ecosystems, and conservation cloning. In human health contexts, it is exemplified in the development of synthetic biology, bionanotechnology, and human enhancement technologies. Designer Biology: The Ethics of Intensively Engineering Biological and Ecological Systems consists of thirteen chapters (twelve of them original to the collection) that address the ethical issues raised by technological intervention and design across a broad range of biological and ecological systems. Among the technologies addressed are geoengineering, human enhancement, sex selection, genetic modification, and synthetic biology. This collection advances and enriches our understanding of the ethical issues raised by these technologies and identifies general lessons about the ethics of engineering complex biological and ecological systems that can be applied as new technologies and practices emerge. The insights that emerge will be especially valuable to students and scholars of environmental ethics, bioethics, or technology ethics.

Acknowledgments
Contributor Biographies
Introduction
I. Engineering Humans
Chapter 1: Sex Selection and the Value-Ladenness of the Procreative Liberty Framework
Chapter 2: The Ethics of Embryo Selection
Chapter 3: Assessing Efficacy of “Neuroenhancing” Drugs: Normative Problems in Empirical Controversies
Chapter 4: Engineering for Virtue? Toward Holistic Moral Enhancement
Chapter 5: Radical Enhancement and What’ Wrong with It
Chapter 6: Human Engineering and Climate Change
II. Engineering the Environment
Chapter 7: The Human Influence: Moral Responsibility for Novel Ecosystems
Chapter 8: Why Scientists Should Get Out of Nature Conservation
Chapter 9: What it Takes to Justify Geoengineering the Climate
Chapter 10: Remediation vs. Steering: An Act-Description Approach to Approving and Funding Geoengineering Research
III. Engineering Life
Chapter 11: Sensitivity Enhancement: The Ethics of Testing Cognitive Enhancement on Non-Human Research Subjects
Chapter 12: The Capacities, Interests, and Organization of Artifactual Organisms
Chapter 13: How to Evolve a Good of Your Own: The Biological Interests of Instant Organisms
Conclusion: Lessons for the Future

This work, edited by Basl and Sandler (both, philosophy, Northeastern Univ.), is a compilation of papers based on a workshop held at Northeastern. The book contains 13 chapters divided in three parts: 'Engineering Humans,' 'Engineering the Environment,' and 'Engineering Life.' Twelve of the 13 chapters are from the workshop; the last chapter does a very nice job of providing conclusions and generalizations based on the other chapters. Contributors address topics such as the consideration of moral responsibility for using engineering methods to select the sex of human embryos; using molecular techniques to create 'designer' children; using implants and/or drugs to affect moral behavior; altering the Earth's atmosphere to combat climate change; and artificially designing and developing technologically created organisms. Each chapter stands alone and would pique a reader's interest in moral issues associated with new and future use of biological engineering to manipulate biological entities. The chapters are provocative and are valuable as a basis for considerations of the ethics of human intervention into natural systems. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers/faculty.