Sci Eng Ethics. 2014 Sep 24. [Epub ahead of print]

Biosecurity and Open-Source Biology: The Promise and Peril of Distributed Synthetic Biological Technologies.

Evans NG1, Selgelid MJ.

Author information

• 1Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, University of Pennsylvania, Suite 320, 3401 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA, neva9257@gmail.com.

Abstract

In this article, we raise ethical concerns about the potential misuse of open-source biology (OSB): biological research and development that progresses through an organisational model of radical openness, deskilling, and innovation. We compare this organisational structure to that of the open-source software model, and detail salient ethical implications of this model. We demonstrate that OSB, in virtue of its commitment to openness, may be resistant to governance attempts.