Responsible Research and Education
Our planned research activities, which involve engineering of cells with novel structures and functions, as well as multicellular self-organizing structures, raise bioethical concerns including the possibilities of release or unintended behaviors. We take these concerns very seriously and are organizing a series of ethics workshops centered around the bioethics of biotechnology, with reference to the original Asilomar conference. The goal of our ethics educational plan is to teach our students and researchers to view risk mitigation as a both a philosophical challenge of balancing risk versus benefit, as well as a research topic in its own right, rather than simply a list of rules for responsible conduct.
We are enlarging the scope of the Center’s thinking and training regarding responsible conduct of science, innovation and engineering technology, taking into account environmental, societal rights and risks, and unforeseen and unanticipated harms or impacts. Our ethics educational program is focused on ethics of innovation, and is guided by the concept that “Ethics can be the source of technological development rather than just a constraint and technological progress can create moral progress rather than just moral problems” (Van den Hoven et al., 2012).
NSF Policy re: Life Sciences Dual Use Research of Concern (DURC)
Quick Takes: Quarterly Thoughts on Ethics in Relation to Cellular Engineering
CCC Members – log in to see features on ethics in relation to cellular engineering, authored by Robert McGinn, our lead ethical advisor and investigator.
RESOURCES- see article by David B. Resnick, JD, PhD (12/23/20)
https://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/resources/bioethics/whatis/index.cfm
