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Team:TU-Delft/Ethics/Assessment
From 2012.igem.org
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Through our iGEM project we are called to create a Biobrick of a yeast detecting odors. This not only is part of Synthetic Biology and is therefore prone to ethical considerations, but also due to it's chimeric properties can be called an invention and therefore can be a potential patent target. The question generated is where the line should be placed between finding and investigation and thus the question is raised: Is a chimeric protein an invention?
To begin with and trying to define synthetic biology we come up with the deliberate design of biological systems and living organisms using engineering principles. Synthetic biology is the creation of ‘artificial life’. |
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Define Patent...When this 'creation' being seen as a patent and when is considered what sort of methods and genes are patented at this moment and judging the legal verdict about genetic patent cases, the extent to which the genetic patenting will play a role in research, seems limited. Since scientists, most of the time, try to comprehend and research natural phenomena, patent infringement should never occur; and that because natural genes and products can’t be patented. When engineers are researching a modified gene, they have to be able to see to what extent genetic licensing is done in that area. Until now this does not happen and for that reason the patent infringements come as an unwelcome surprise. Licensing for engineering purposes only seems fair, while the use of inventions has to be evaluated. When applications come to the market, and become more and more exposed to the society, the conflict against Genetic Modifications becomes high potential. When such applications have to be evaluated by a board, where all parties with their personal interests are present, a general acknowledgement of a certain application can be made. |
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| A patent on a gene is, however, allowable when one can show the inventive step. A smart way of the assembling matter is what an invention is and when a gene is rearranged to such an extent, that it has a new function which can now be credited. When this invention occurs in order to ease scientific findings, the latter have to pay for it. It has an analogy to transportation: Some people can’t buy a Mercedes. Mercedes cars are faster and provide ease, but there is always the possibility to walk. However, it really should be a non-obvious inventive step for experts too. A characteristic which in some patents can be doubted. |  |
A spread of alternatives, a good idea?The reaction of scientists to spread alternatives is, according to our opinion, great, and it speeds up the technological progression. Still people who do that, have to keep in mind, that their work is mostly funded by proven applications; thus they may be cutting in their own hands.New inventions are a great matter, but that does not mean that they are also desired. Adjusting living species, a market-based estimation of value is not enough. The fact that people are willing to pay in order to gain something, does not meant that the desirable object is valuable. Commercial interests and interests of individuals involved, intended or unintended should be weighed. Individual target groups, prone to risks, should be informed and given a voice in the debate of implementing the application intended. This is the only way our desired world stays desired by everyone. Putting interests on a balance... also not your ownAnd at this point the ethics factor takes place. Trying to co-live in this world with others, share the sources given to us with respect to ... the creator, the question whether creating new types of life prohibits any rights, is generated. For many years now religions all over the world implicate a belief in a spiritual world (often accompanied with a deity), influencing people's point of view and determining moral principles through a belief and/or cultural system. What religions often try to succeed is the explanatory world view, trying to grasp the world.Often religions consider living species being created for a reason (for instance, in the Catholic church the task of people is to make the world as if we live in heaven) and directing the insertion or deletion of functions, in these beings, tremendous effect. Most specificallt in our case, by the insertion of smelling genes in yeast, the whole sexual reproduction system of yeast is disturbed. The cause of reproduction therefore has been changed. Inserting designed genes in an organism, even taking the gradual discovery of essential functions into consideration, can be assumed ‘acting as God’ in the respect that there is a significant and directed influence in the target organism and its homologs. |
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| Thus it is called to be considered: 'Where would it be permitted to implement such an invention?’ Additionally, the implementer has to wonder relatively to the possibility of dual use, being aware of consequences which can occur when the invention comes to open and much more considerations. The producer of the invention then has the ethical decision of distribution the invention. Given the ethical viewpoint of the inventor and regulator, he should be aware of the possible damages an invention may cause. It is the implementer that has to be blamed then, as such a product is sold to incapable people or people with malicious intentions. |  |
A practical argumentAccording to knowledge relatively to evolutionary processes, it is known that many organisms modified in laboratories wouldn’t survive in nature. That simply lies to the fact that the ‘extra genes’ only cost extra energy and there is no gain in maintaining those genes. A yeast cell that has sacrificed its sexual reproduction mechanism to get the function of smelling, just would not survive. Changing species by knocking out functions or introducing extra survival skills however, can lead to more viable species. With these species the risk is greater and therefore the potential consequences, should be considered before their creation. What would it happen when such creator is realised in the nature?
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