National Bioethics Commission: we don’t need more experts

February 1, 2008

In yesterday’s edition of the journal Science, the geneticist Craig Venter announced that his team has created the genetic code of a bacterium. It is only a matter of time before he transplants this into a cell to create the first artificial life form. Such microbes might be created to make new antibiotics, but they also raise ethical concern. Critics worry about lethal new germs, created by bioterror or accidental “bioerror”. Some also consider it morally wrong to mould new life. (Times Online)