Are the benefits of synthetic biology significant?
Pros:
Synthetic biology holds major benefits for humanity and promises much. It promises better drugs, less thirsty crops, greener fuels and even a rejuvenated chemical industry. Synthetic biology can help fight climate change and pollution. It has the potential to reduce the dependence on oil and to address climate change. Developed microbes would produce oil, giving a renewable fuel that could be used interchangeably with gasoline without creating more global warming pollution. It also lead to oil-eating microbes, an application that, as the Gulf spill demonstrates would be extremely useful.
Synthetic biology can be tailored for specific needs. With this approach, scientists have the ability …show more content…
Pros: Threat of bio terrorism is no greater than natural threats. While the threat of bio terrorism may be significant, it is not in principle greater than those posed by natural organisms that already exist. Any scientific advance can be abused and synthetic biology has no different. Every new process in the physical as in the biological sciences may lead to unanticipated, potentially harmful novelties, it is also the case that, in the end, any scientific advance can potentially be abused for ill as well as used for good. More good synthetic biologists can outwit malevolent ones Thoughtful observers of synthetic biology favour a different approach: openness. This avoids shutting out the good in a belated attempt to prevent the bad. Knowledge cannot be unlearned, so the best way to oppose the villains is to have lots of heroes on your side. Then, when a problem arises, an answer can be found quickly. It is life, but not as we know it. …show more content…
Promise and risks are from life not as we know it. The claim to have created synthetic biology has been characterised pejoratively as playing God. This is a poor substitute for an argument. One obvious consideration is that we would not have to play God if the deity herself had not made such an abject mess of things.
Cons:
Human-made life plays God and nature Instead of allowing life to emerge through natural processes and perhaps by God's will. Human is trying to take the initiative on its own. This is highly arrogant and risky. Never before has human attempted to perform life-creating tasks. Human is not merely copying life artificially or modifying it by genetic engineering. Human is going towards the role of God and creating synthetic life that could never have existed. Human cannot create life Human can only manipulate it. One can modify and manipulate already existing biological material. No one is able to create life from scratch. There have been claims before that life has been created. Despite some of the wilder hype, scientists have
Pros:
Synthetic biology holds major benefits for humanity and promises much. It promises better drugs, less thirsty crops, greener fuels and even a rejuvenated chemical industry. Synthetic biology can help fight climate change and pollution. It has the potential to reduce the dependence on oil and to address climate change. Developed microbes would produce oil, giving a renewable fuel that could be used interchangeably with gasoline without creating more global warming pollution. It also lead to oil-eating microbes, an application that, as the Gulf spill demonstrates would be extremely useful.
Synthetic biology can be tailored for specific needs. With this approach, scientists have the ability …show more content…
Pros: Threat of bio terrorism is no greater than natural threats. While the threat of bio terrorism may be significant, it is not in principle greater than those posed by natural organisms that already exist. Any scientific advance can be abused and synthetic biology has no different. Every new process in the physical as in the biological sciences may lead to unanticipated, potentially harmful novelties, it is also the case that, in the end, any scientific advance can potentially be abused for ill as well as used for good. More good synthetic biologists can outwit malevolent ones Thoughtful observers of synthetic biology favour a different approach: openness. This avoids shutting out the good in a belated attempt to prevent the bad. Knowledge cannot be unlearned, so the best way to oppose the villains is to have lots of heroes on your side. Then, when a problem arises, an answer can be found quickly. It is life, but not as we know it. …show more content…
Promise and risks are from life not as we know it. The claim to have created synthetic biology has been characterised pejoratively as playing God. This is a poor substitute for an argument. One obvious consideration is that we would not have to play God if the deity herself had not made such an abject mess of things.
Cons:
Human-made life plays God and nature Instead of allowing life to emerge through natural processes and perhaps by God's will. Human is trying to take the initiative on its own. This is highly arrogant and risky. Never before has human attempted to perform life-creating tasks. Human is not merely copying life artificially or modifying it by genetic engineering. Human is going towards the role of God and creating synthetic life that could never have existed. Human cannot create life Human can only manipulate it. One can modify and manipulate already existing biological material. No one is able to create life from scratch. There have been claims before that life has been created. Despite some of the wilder hype, scientists have