Synthetic biology and technology assessment

1. UK-Japan Seminar on Synthetic Biology:Social and Ethical Challenges British Embassy, Tokyo22 January 2010 Synthetic biology and technology assessment A new generation? Go Yoshizawa Graduate School of Publicy Policy (GraSPP)University of Tokyo

2. Social and Ethical Issues in Synthetic Biology Playing God, or • Hastings Center (Garfinkel et al. 2008) • Biosafety and biosecurity • Environment • Ownership (access, sharing, intellectual property, and innovation) • Philosophical and theological issues • Professional conduct of researchers • Woodrow Wilson Center (Parens, Johnston & Moses 2009) • Physical harms and non-physical harms • Pro-actionary or pre-cautionary framework

3. Newness of Synthetic Biology Converging World? • vs. genetic engineering • Able to manufacture virtually any DNA, built-to-order; able to create more sophisticated and efficient systems (Parens, Johnston & Moses 2009) • Involves the use of standardised parts and follows a formal design process; a whole specialised metabolic unit can be constructed and inserted in a more precise way into the genome (cf. Tait 2009) • vs. nanotechnology • Nanotechnology products have not so far been subject to the degree of governance-related scrutiny that would usually apply to innovations in life sciences (Tait 2009) • Exceedingly difficult to distinguish between the ethical concerns that arise in these two contexts (Parens, Johnston & Moses 2009) • vs. information technology • Parts or tools derived by synthetic biologists should be as “open source” (Parens, Johnston & Moses 2009)

4. What is Technology Assessment (TA)? Working Definition • Technology assessment (TA) refers to institutions and practices which support problem-definition (agenda setting) or decision-making for the development of technology and society by anticipating societal impacts of emerging technologies that are difficult to be governed by conventional research, innovation and legal systems at an early stage of the technology development.

5. Range of TA Activities participants proposing issues proposingmeasures experts purpose purpose issue framing decision support deliberating issues deliberatingmeasures public participants

6. 3rd Generation TA (3G-TA) Technology Assessment in Distributed Governance • Includes expert-based (1G) and selected citizen-focused (2G) activities, but Intermediate actors and lay public are key practitioners • Between technical/analytical (1G) and social/deliberative (2G) • Not necessarily based in an established parliament-related organisation (1G, 2G), but rather in a flexible distribution network of existing intellectual and human resources • Network and information technologies are promising • Agenda-setting and outreach process may often be more committed than assessment itself • Affinity with technology foresight and R&D evaluation

7. Prospect of 3G-TA on Synthetic Biology What is Really Challenged • TA vs. CSO? (Stemerding et al. 2009) • Dutch TA report and UK scientific review: safety, security and intellectual property • ETC report: potentially adverse socio-economic implications of synthetic biololgy in an international context • The lessons we need to learn are more complex than merely ‘more and earlier stakeholder engagement’ (Tait 2009: 152) • Effective distribution of strategic intelligence and actors is necessary to steer converging technologies