TEORIA 2014/1

* The background research for this article comes from an earlier publication in Italian on
the topic of metaphor and synthetic biology (Raho 2012: 295-304). The author would like to
thank Professor Sergio Bartolommei for helpful suggestions.
Rethinking Nature
Through Synthetic Biology*
Joseph A. Raho
Introduction
The possibility of creating life from non-living parts has always been a
matter of science-fiction until recently. In 2010, the worlds first self-
replicating synthetic cell was created by 24 researchers at the J. Craig
Venter Institute (USA). Their paper, published online in Science, describes
the synthesis, assembly, cloning, and successful transplantation of the
1.08 million base pair synthetic Mycoplasma mycoides genome (Gibson et
al. 2010). This synthetic genome, [] the largest chemically defined
structure ever synthesized in the laboratory (J. Craig Venter Institute
2010), provides a proof of principle for producing cells based on comput-
er-designed genome sequences (Gibson et al. 2010: 55) that have not up
until now naturally existed. In the provocative words of Venter, [this cell
line] is the first self-replicating species weve had on the planet whose par-
ent is a computer (quoted in Murray 2011: 34).
In addition to promises of advancing fundamental scientific knowledge,
creating renewable biofuels, and developing medicines more efficiently,
there are various ethical concerns from risk and safety issues to worries
about tampering with nature and playing God. Whereas traditional genetic
engineering aims to modify existing organisms, synthetic biology looks to
design and assemble organisms de novo i.e., from scratch. This paper pro-
vides an overview to the ethics of synthetic biology by focusing particularly
Rethinking Nature