Team:Paris Bettencourt/Human Practice/Interview

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Aims

To talk with experts in different domains in order to orient our human practice.

Professor MAMZER-BRUNEEL

Presentation

Professor MAMZER-BRUNEEL, MD.PhD. , is currently a doctor at Necker Hospital in the kidney transplantation department. Furthemore, she is president of the "Advisory Council for the Protection of People Subject to Biomedical Research" and member of the "Laboratory of Ethics of Paris Decartes University".

Take home message

We are interviewing her as a member of the laboratory of ethics of Paris Descartes as the "Advisory Council for the Protection of People Subject to Biomedical Research" does not deal with such issues: the harm to human beings would be indirect here(via a contaminated bacteria for example) and not direct.

Ethics comity. Professor MAMZER-BRUNEEL thinks that there is no proper ethics commity that deals with such issues (indirect harms that genetically modifed organisms could cause to human populations) and thinks that this is a shame as they are some ethics consideration in regards of the release of genetically modified organisms in the wild. She defined a proper ethics comity as follows: a comity who possesses representatives of the social society and not just of scientists.

Elements for an ethic discussion to take place.For an ethics discussion to take place, these elements need to be identified and well characterized:

• What is the interest for the collectivity?
• What collectivity are we talking about? A certain group of people? All human beings? Animals?
• What is the exact field of application?
• What are the alternatives?
• What are the risks? (risk not limiting itself to toxicity). [To be evaluated by exeperts]
• How secure is the system? [To be evaluated by experts]

Then a balance benefits/risks can be established.

Will the risk associated with the release of genetically modified organims in the wild always be too big? No risk is acceptable if there are no benefits. This being said, no, the risk will not always be too big. Theu human being is currently in the process of altering many things: the way to give birth, the way to die, human genes are being modified. However, the release og genetically modifed bacteria in the wild has to be un-demonized. There is the need for a global, TRANSPARENT discussion. Most people do not ask for a risk 0, but they request that the situation, the benefits and risks be clearly explained to them

Doctor AGUITON

Presentation

Sara Aguiton obtained a PhD at the institue of political science "Science Po ". In 2009, she was part of the Paris Bettencourt iGEM team and her essay called "SynthEthics. An Ethical and Sociological Analysis on Synthetic Biology" got rewarded with the "best human practice advance" prize.

Take home message

She helped us get on the good track for the human practice. She emphasized the fact that the report should really be linked to the rest of our project. It is crucial that we discuss HGT, since when has it been a concern? How have people dealt with it so far? Why our system comes as an answer.

She also pointed out that we should be careful not to distinguish to much the public and scientists, as scientists are also part of the civil society.

Professor GOUYON

Presentation

Professor Pierre Henri GOUYON is a Ph.D Geneticist specialist of Evolutionary biology, Population biology and Plant breeding at Université de Paris Sud France. He is a Professor at National Museum of Natural History, AgroParisTech and Science Po Paris.

Take home message

Professor MORANGE

Professor Ricroch