Context matters: On the road to responsible biosafety technologies in synthetic biology.

Biosafety is a major challenge for developing for synthetic organisms. An early focus on application and their context could assist with the design of appropriate genetic safeguards.

Genetic Safeguards for Safety-by-design: So Close Yet So Far.

Safety-by-design (SbD) is paramount for risk management in synthetic biology, with genetic safeguards being a key technology for its implementation. While attractive in theory, the integration of genetic safeguards into SbD strategies is rarely exercised in practice, despite technological advances. Here we question why and what might be done about it.

Creative tensions: mutual responsiveness adapted to private sector research and development.

The concept of mutual responsiveness is currently based on little empirical data in the literature of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). This paper explores RRI's idea of mutual responsiveness in the light of recent RRI case studies on private sector research and development (R&D). In RRI, responsible innovation is understood as a joint endeavour of innovators and societal stakeholders, who become mutually responsive to each other in defining the 'right impacts' of the innovation in society, and in steering the innovation towards realising those impacts.

Smart-Glasses: Exposing and Elucidating the Ethical Issues.

The objective of this study is to provide an overview over the ethical issues relevant to the assessment, implementation, and use of smart-glasses. The purpose of the overview is to facilitate deliberation, decision making, and the formation of knowledge and norms for this emerging technology. An axiological question-based method for human cognitive enhancement including an extensive literature search on smart-glasses is used to identify relevant ethical issues.

Reflections on different governance styles in regulating science: a contribution to 'Responsible Research and Innovation'.

In European science and technology policy, various styles have been developed and institutionalised to govern the ethical challenges of science and technology innovations. In this paper, we give an account of the most dominant styles of the past 30 years, particularly in Europe, seeking to show their specific merits and problems. We focus on three styles of governance: a technocratic style, an applied ethics style, and a public participation style.

Adapt or perish? Assessing the recent shift in the European research funding arena from 'ELSA' to 'RRI'.

Two decades ago, in 1994, in the context of the 4(th) EU Framework Programme, ELSA was introduced as a label for developing and funding research into the ethical, legal and social aspects of emerging sciences and technologies. Currently, particularly in the context of EU funding initiatives such as Horizon2020, a new label has been forged, namely Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). What is implied in this metonymy, this semantic shift? What is so new about RRI in comparison to ELSA? First of all, for both labels, the signifier (S) was introduced in a top-down manner, well before the concept that was signified by it (s) had acquired a clear and stable profile.

Medical and ethical considerations in uterus transplantation.

Transplanting a uterus has unique characteristics, since a successful outcome is represented only by the birth of a viable healthy child. For this reason, critical issues in this type of transplantation differ profoundly from those of other solid organs and, beside a functioning uterus, involve 3 additional steps. First, at the time of implantation, the quality of embryo is tested by specialized decidual cells surrounding the implanting embryo; such testing is aimed at allowing the development of a normal embryo.

"After birth" abortion: a biomedical and conceptual nonsense.

Recently, two authors suggested that killing a healthy newborn might be morally permissible, subsuming it under the heading of 'after birth abortion'. Their proposed new definition implies that infanticide should be permitted whenever II trimester abortion for social reasons is. The suggestion stirred public outcry; nonetheless it needs to be analyzed since some 20% of countries allow II trimester abortion for social reasons and 5% do this on demand.

Enhancing disabilities: transhumanism under the veil of inclusion?

Technological developments for disabled athletes may facilitate their competition in standard elite sports. They raise intriguing philosophical questions that challenge dominant notions of body and normality. The case of 'bladerunner' Oscar Pistorius in particular is used to illustrate and defend 'transhumanist' ideologies that promote the use of technology to extend human capabilities.

Prenatal diagnosis and the trouble with eugenics.

In the past few years we have witnessed huge steps forwards in reproductive technology. Specifically genetic diagnosis has created a range of possibilities. This carries along benefits for prenatal care as well as carrying along unprecedented ethical dilemmas that demonstrate some more problematic sides of several basic notions in medical ethics.

Distributing responsibility in the debate on sustainable biofuels.

In the perception of technology innovation two world views compete for domination: technological and social determinism. Technological determinism holds that societal change is caused by technological developments, social determinism holds the opposite. Although both were quite central to discussion in the philosophy, history and sociology of technology in the 1970s and 1980s, neither is seen as mainstream now.