The Ethical Study Of Synthetic Biology

Synthetic biology has developed very rapidly in recent years, and aroused great concerns. Owing to the ability of synthetic biology to cross the boundary of life and non-life, it could have tremendous impact on traditional conception of life, including its meaning, value and significance. Synthetic biology contains not only meaningful promises for society, but also potential perils. It is a promising new research field for the development of new energy, medicine and drugs, and for the solution of global food supply and ecological issues. However, its potential risks are also raising concerns for biosafety biosecurity and other ethical issues. Moreover, synthetic biology has the potentiality of dual-use. Its misuse and abuse will engender public health and ecological issues, and it could also be used in bio-war, bio-terrorism and so on.In this paper, I try to elucidate conceptual-ethical issues and general ethical issues about synthetic biology. Conceptual-ethical issues are related to the legitimacy of synthetic biology, which mainly including two major arguments-playing god and unnaturalness. However, these two arguments against synthetic biology are not good enough to reach their conclusion that synthetic biology is not ethically justifiable. Nonetheless, we have to treat synthetic biology issues carefully and seriously because of the impact synthetic biology may affect on people. This paper will discuss four major areas of concern with respect to the general ethical issues, including:analysis of benefit and risk, justice, scientist’s moral duty and patenting.By comparing ethical-regulatory frameworks home and abroad, this paper intends to focus on existing ethical problems associated with synthetic biology, and then analyze arguments for or against synthetic biology. Recommendations for establishing ethical-regulatory framework in China will be provided based on the discussions above.