edited by GREGORY E. KAEBNICK and THOMAS H. MURRAYBIOETHICS/PHILOSOPHY STNTHETIC BIOLOGY and MORALITY Artificial Life and the Bounds of Nature edited by Gregory E. Kaebnick and Thomas H. Murray Synthetic biology, which aims to design and build organisms that serve human needs, has potential applications that range from producing bio- fuels to programming human behavior, The emergence of this new form of biotechnology, however, raises a variety of ethical questions—first and fore- most, whether synthetic biology is intrinsically troubling in moral terms. Is it an egregious example of scientists “playing Goa”? Synthetic Biology and Morality takes on this threshold ethical question, as well as others that follow, offering a range of philosophical and political perspectives on the power of synthetic biology. The contributors consider the basic question of the ethics of making new organisms, with essays that lay out the conceptual terrain and offer oppos- ing views of the intrinsic moral concerns; discuss the possibility that synthetic organisms are inherently valuable; and address whether, and how, moral objec- tions to synthetic biology could be relevant to pclicy making and political dis- course. Variations of these questions have been raised before, in debates over other biotechnologies, but, as this book shows, they take on novel and illumi- nating form when considered in the context of sy thetic biology. Gregory E. Kaebnick is a Research Scholar at the Hastings Center, editor of the Hastings Center Report, and editor of the book The ideal of Nature: Debates about Biotechnology and the Environment. Thomas H. Murray is President Emeritus and Senior Research Scholar at the Hastings Center and author of The Worth of a Child. Basic Bioethics series “Synthetic biology demands a creative response from bioethics. The editors have assembled a highly qualified group of authors who have met the chal- lenge. This anthology is as innovative as synthetic biology itself.” Jonathan D. Moreno, David and Lyn Silfen University Professor, University of Pennsylvania “Synthetic biology is a hot topic and deserves ethical scrutiny, and this is one of the first volumes that attempts it. This is a useful contribution to bioethics and related fields.” Dale Jamieson, Director of Environmental Studies, New York University; author of Ethics and the Environment “Across the board, the clarity and directness of the writing make this collec- tion a fine introduction to the range of views on synthetic biology from the bioethics community.” Paul B. Thompson, W. K. Kellogg Professor of Agricultural, Food and Com- munity Ethics, Michigan State University 978-0-262-51959-5,