Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Commentary
  • Published:

Our synthetic future

Two prominent ethicists provide their views on the ethical debates surrounding synthetic biology.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Specter, M. A life of its own. Where will synthetic biology lead us? The New Yorker 28 September 2009, 56.

    Google Scholar 

  2. <http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy.html>

  3. Rees, M. Our Final Century: Will the Human Race Survive the Twenty-first Century? (Heinemann, London, 2003).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Rees, M. Our Final Hour: A Scientist's Warning: How Terror, Error, and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind's Future In This Century—On Earth and Beyond (Basic, New York, 2003).

    Google Scholar 

  5. <http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001461/146180E.pdf>

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Nigel M de S Cameron or Arthur Caplan.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

de S Cameron, N., Caplan, A. Our synthetic future. Nat Biotechnol 27, 1103–1105 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt1209-1103

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt1209-1103

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing