Regulate Synthetic Biology Now: 194 Countries
By SynBioWatch,
SynBioWatch
| 10. 17. 2014
PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA– In a unanimous decision of 194 countries, the United Nation’s Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) today formally urged nation states to regulate synthetic biology (SynBio), a new extreme form of genetic engineering. The landmark decision follows ten days of hard-fought negotiations between developing countries and a small group of wealthy biotech-friendly economies. Until now, synthetic organisms have been developed and commercialized without international regulations; increasing numbers of synthetically-derived products are making their way to market. The CBD’s decision is regarded as a “starting signal” for governments to begin establishing formal oversight for this exploding and controversial field.
“Synthetic Biology has been like the wild west: a risky technology frontier with little oversight or regulation,” Jim Thomas of ETC Group explained from CBD negotiations in Korea. “At last the UN is laying down the law.”
“This international decision is very clear,” Thomas added. “Not only do countries now have to set up the means to regulate synthetic biology, but those regulations need to be based on precaution and not harming the environment.”
“The good news is that precaution...
Related Articles
By Ed Cara, Gizmodo | 06.22.2025
In late May, several scientific organizations, including the International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy (ISCT), banded together to call for a 10-year moratorium on using CRISPR and related technologies to pursue human heritable germline editing. The declaration also outlined...
By Darren Incorvaia, Fierce Biotech | 05.28.2025
An international group of gene editing leaders has put out a call for a 10-year ban on heritable human genome editing (HHGE), extending a moratorium that was first proposed in the fallout of a Chinese researcher’s widely decried use of...
Last week, May 21–23, a broad range of experts gathered in Boston to discuss the future of powerful biotechnologies with the potential to change what it means to be human. The fourth in a series of international Summits on human genome editing, this event was organized by the Global Observatory for Genome Editing, which “seeks to expand the range of questions arising at the frontiers of emerging biotechnologies … and fosters international, interdisciplinary, and cross-sectoral dialogue.” Like previous Summits...
By Hannah Devlin, The Guardian | 05.23.2025
The sperm of a man carrying a rare cancer-causing mutation was used to conceive at least 67 children, 10 of whom have since been diagnosed with cancer, in a case that has highlighted concerns about the lack of internationally agreed...
