scholarly journals Regulating Genome Editing: For an Enlightened Democratic Governance

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
GIULIA CAVALIERE ◽  
KATRIEN DEVOLDER ◽  
ALBERTO GIUBILINI
Keyword(s):  
Genome Editing ◽  
Moral Psychology ◽  
Moral Status ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Democratic Governance ◽  
Theoretical Level ◽  
Ethical Pluralism ◽  
The Face

Abstract:How should we regulate genome editing in the face of persistent substantive disagreement about the moral status of this technology and its applications? In this paper, we aim to contribute to resolving this question. We first present two diametrically opposed possible approaches to the regulation of genome editing. A first approach, which we refer to as “elitist,” is inspired by Joshua Greene’s work in moral psychology. It aims to derive at an abstract theoretical level what preferences people would have if they were committed to implementing public policies regulating genome editing in a context of ethical pluralism. The second approach, which we refer to as the democratic approach, defended by Francoise Baylis and Sheila Jasanoff et al., emphasizes the importance of including the public’s expressed attitudes in the regulation of genome editing. After pointing out a serious shortcoming with each of these approaches, we propose our own favored approach—the “enlightened democracy” approach—which attempts to combine the strengths of the elitist and democratic approaches while avoiding their weaknesses.

Universal Information Ethics? Ethical Pluralism and Social Justice

2011 ◽  
pp. 69-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Ess
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Ethics ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Ethical Pluralism ◽  
Diffusion Of Information ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
Information And Communication

The explosive, global diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and computer-mediated communication (CMC) confronts us with the need for an information ethics that can resolve ethical problems evoked by ICTs and CMC in ways that provide shared, perhaps (quasi-)universal responses. At the same time, however, in the name of a transcultural social justice that preserves diverse cultural identities, such an ethics must also reflect and sustain local values, approaches, and traditions. Important ethical claims from both within Western and between Eastern and Western cultures exemplify an ethical pluralism that is able to meet these requirements as this pluralism represents important ethical differences as issuing from diverse judgments and applications of shared ethical norms.

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