Abstract
Maintaining the coherence of the distinction between nature and artefact has long been central to environmental thinking. By building genomes from scratch out of 'bio-bricks', synthetic biology promises to create biotic artefacts markedly different from anything created thus far in biotechnology. These new biotic artefacts depart from a core principle of Darwinian natural selection - descent through modification - leaving them with no causal connection to historical evolutionary processes. This departure from the core principle of Darwinism presents a challenge to the normative foundation of a number of leading positions in environmental ethics. As a result, environmental ethicists with a commitment to the normative significance of the historical evolutionary process may see synthetic biology as a moral 'line in the sand'.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 23-39 |
Number of pages | 17 |
Journal | Environmental Values |
Volume | 17 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Feb 2008 |
Keywords
- Artefact
- Darwinism
- Ethics
- Evolution
- Nature
- Synthetic biology