Rerimassie Virgil
Rathenau Instituut, PO Box 95366, 2509 CJ The Hague, The Netherlands.
Nanoethics. 2016;10(3):289-308. doi: 10.1007/s11569-016-0257-2. Epub 2016 Apr 22.
Synthetic biology may be an important source of progress as well as societal and political conflict. Against this backdrop, several technology assessment organizations have been seeking to contribute to timely societal and political opinion-making on synthetic biology. The Rathenau Instituut, based in the Netherlands, is one of these organizations. In 2011, the institute organized a 'Meeting of Young Minds': a young people's debate between 'future synthetic biologists' and 'future politicians'. The former were represented by participants in the international Genetically Engineered Machines competition (iGEM), the latter by political youth organizations (PYOs) linked to Dutch political parties. The Rathenau Instituut found seven PYOs-including right wing, left wing, Green and Christian groups-willing to commit to an intensive process aimed at formulating a tentative partisan view on synthetic biology and discussing it with fellow PYOs and iGEM participants. Given the minimal amount of available data on how political parties understand synthetic biology, mapping the debate may provide valuable insights. In this article, I aim to provide such a mapping exercise and also to reflect on how and why the Rathenau Instituut organized the event.
合成生物学可能是进步的重要源泉，同时也可能引发社会和政治冲突。在此背景下，一些技术评估组织一直在努力为关于合成生物学的及时的社会和政治舆论形成做出贡献。位于荷兰的拉瑟瑙研究所就是这些组织之一。2011年，该研究所组织了一场“青年思想会议”：一场“未来合成生物学家”与“未来政治家”之间的青年辩论。前者由国际遗传工程机器大赛（iGEM）的参与者代表，后者由与荷兰政党相关的政治青年组织（PYO）代表。拉瑟瑙研究所找到了七个政治青年组织，包括右翼、左翼、绿色和基督教团体，它们愿意致力于一个密集的过程，旨在就合成生物学形成初步的党派观点，并与其他政治青年组织和国际遗传工程机器大赛的参与者进行讨论。鉴于关于政党如何理解合成生物学的可用数据极少，梳理这场辩论可能会提供有价值的见解。在本文中，我的目的是进行这样一次梳理，并反思拉瑟瑙研究所如何以及为何组织了这次活动。
