The ethics of protocells : moral and social implications of creating life in the laboratory / edited by Mark A. Bedau and Emily C. Parke.

Cambridge, Massachusetts : MIT Press, [2009]

x, 365 pages ; 23 cm.

Introduction to the ethics of protocells / Mark A. Bedau and Emily C. Parke -- New technologies, public perceptions, and ethics / Brian Johnson -- Social and ethical implications of creating artificial cells / Mark A. Bedau and Mark Triant -- The acceptability of the risks of protocells / Carl Cranor -- The precautionary principle and its critics / Emily C. Parke and Mark A. Bedau -- A new virtue-based understanding of the precautionary principle / Per Sandin -- Ethical dialogue about science in the context of a culture of precaution / Bill Durodié -- The creation of life in cultural context : from spontaneous generation to synthetic biology / Joachim Schummer -- Second life : some ethical issues in synthetic biology and the recapitulation of evolution / Laurie Zoloth -- Protocell patents : property between modularity and emergence / Alain Pottage -- Protocells, precaution, and open-source biology / Andrew Hessel -- The ambivalence of protocells : challenges for self-reflexive ethics / Brigitte Hantsche-Tangen -- Open evolution and human agency : the pragmatics of upstream ethics in the design of artificial life / George Khushf -- Human practices : interfacing three modes of collaboration / Paul Rabinow and Gaymon Bennett -- This is not a hammer : on ethics and technology / Mickey Gjerris -- Toward a critical evaluation of protocell research / Christine Hauskeller -- Methodological considerations about the ethical and social implications of protocells / Giovanni Boniolo.

Includes bibliographical references and index.