New Ethical Frameworks for Synthetic Biology in the Indo-Pacific: Literature Review.

Overall, this literature review reveals a fragmented global and regional approach to SynBio ethics. The major elements of SynBio are spread across multiple international government agreements, temporary scientific agreements, national-level legislation, or not addressed at all. In general, there is a myriad of agreements on genetic resource sharing and biodiversity conservation, even though these agreements don’t function as well as they could. Whereas, on the issue of genetic editing, there is a real shortage of concrete global or regional ethical frameworks. The fragmentation and failures of the current system strongly validates the importance of this project – to create new ethical frameworks for SynBio in the Indo-Pacific. Report milestone delivered to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade [Australia-India Cyber and Critical Technology Partnership Grant SLG087.