Scientific expertise is generally taken as placeless and universal, whereas values and traditions are seen as culturally particular and, therefore, geographically situated. Accordingly, ethical discussion often begins with the proposition that we must take the science as given, to provide a common baseline for ethical deliberations, and bring in values only downstream in deciding how to govern science and technology. Instead, the Observatory posits that cultures, including those of the Global North, inevitably guide science and technology. Transnational governance of biotechnology must start with such an orientation to arrive at a genuinely “cosmopolitan ethics.”
Human genome editing poses unique challenges of governance because it has the potential to change what it means to be human. Applied to the germline, editing transcends the individual and affects multiple generations. Its effects include not only biological transformation of human life but altering social relations—parent to child, doctor to patient, state to citizen—in fundamental ways. Given the increasing porosity of contemporary societies and their research cultures, governance of genome editing technology needs to take on a transnational dimension. Norms and conceptions of what is acceptable and normal tend to vary across economic, political and religious boundaries. Yet the dynamics of international scientific and technological competition tends to push governance in the direction of greater permissiveness for science on the argument that advances in knowledge and technology are inevitable and therefore should be authorized to go forward.
India has historically been on the receiving end of the diffusion of biotechnological products and practices from the Global North, for instance, in the cases of genetically modified crops, transnational commercial surrogacy, clinical trials, and displacements of domestic innovation and industrial sectors by foreign intellectual property holders. In many of these cases, North-South asymmetries were seen as opportunities for expanding markets within India, with economic benefits accruing elsewhere. These dynamics illustrate some of the challenges of transnational governance that can be brought into relief through a view from the Global South.
Editorial Discretion aims to open up space for voices and perspectives from the South that can enrich and inform global deliberation on the governance of emerging biotechnologies. The conference will develop various themes and questions through panel discussions including public good; equity, access, and governance; biological property; innovation and responsibility; and transnational governance.
09:30 AM
January 11-13, 2024
