[SydPhil] HPS Research Seminar 30th May 2022

Wed May 25 11:55:37 AEST 2022

[https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/AtOsCROND2urR03ZXu9-ZFo?domain=gallery.mailchimp.com]

SCHOOL OF HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
RESEARCH SEMINAR
SEMESTER ONE 2022
MONDAY 30TH MAY 2022
FROM 5:30PM

Location:
F23 Michael Spence Building, Level 5, Room 501
Zoom:
https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/j/86562926806<https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/j/86145485062>

[https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/gQdPCVARKgCl5kpQ8HzEaki?domain=mcusercontent.com]
WENDY ROGERS & JACQUELINE DALZIELL
ETHICS OF SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY: "ALL OF IT IS A PROBLEM. ALL OF IT IS GOOD AND BAD AT THE SAME TIME:

Wendy Rogers, Distinguished Professor, Philosophy Department, Macquarie University
Jac Dalziell, ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Philosophy Department, Macquarie University

Abstract: In this paper, we present the results of an empirical qualitative study with members of the ARC-funded Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology (CoESB). The aim of the study was to investigate scientists’ views of the ethical issues they encounter doing synthetic biology.

We performed 34 interviews with 31 individuals, ranging from PhD students through to Chief Investigators.
Our results fall into three main areas related to ethical issues raised by (i) the products of synthetic biology; (ii) the practice of synthetic biology; and (iii) the social context of the research. Our participants articulated recognised issues such as the potential benefits of synthetic biology products and their associated risks including dual-use research of concern, escape of engineered organisms with subsequent environmental impact, and public mistrust. In addition, they described the impact of precarious academic employment on their capacity to do ‘good science’; the impact of hype and industry influences; and the challenges of developing and following a research agenda to ensure that synthetic biology is harnessed to address some of the ‘grand challenges’ facing humanity.

Our results show that current ethical analyses of synthetic biology fail to take account of the way that the science is done, shaped by factors both internal and external to the laboratory.

Bio: Wendy Rogers is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Philosophy, and the School of Medicine at Macquarie University and a Chief Investigator in the ARC-funded Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology. She has broad research interests in bioethics, including research ethics, ethics of innovative technologies, organ donation, philosophy of medicine, and conflicts of interest in research and practice.
As well as being widely published in specialist and generalist journals, she has made contributions to policy and ethical guidance at the state and national level, through her two terms on the Australian Health Ethics Committee. Prof. Rogers received the 2019 National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Ethics Award, and was included in Nature’s 10 list of ‘People who matter in science’ in 2019 for her work leading to retractions of unethical Chinese transplant research.

Jacqueline Dalziell currently holds a post-doctoral position in the Department of Philosophy, Macquarie University, Sydney, where she conducts bioethics/feminist science studies research in the ARC Center of Excellence in Synthetic Biology. She received her Ph.D in sociology from UNSW Sydney, in 2018. Prior to coming to Macquarie, she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the ARC Center of Excellence in Convergent Bio-Nano Science and technology at UNSW, producing feminist science studies research. Her research merges contemporary social theory with perspectives from classical social theory. Her research interests include feminist theory, sociology of science, continental philosophy, and psychoanalytic thought.

WHEN:  MONDAY 30TH MAY 2022
START : 5.30PM
Location:
 F23 Michael Spence Building, Level 1, Room 501

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