Are current EU policies on GMOs justified?

The European Court of Justice's recent ruling that the new techniques for crop development are to be considered as genetically modified organisms under the European Union's regulations exacerbates the need for a critical evaluation of those regulations. The paper analyzes the regulation from the perspective of moral and political philosophy. It considers whether influential arguments for restrictions of genetically modified organisms provide cogent justifications for the policies that are in place, in particular a pre-release authorization requirement, mandatory labelling, and de facto bans (in the form of withholding or opting out of authorizations). It is argued that arguments pertaining to risk can justify some form of pre-release authorization scheme, although not necessarily the current one, but that neither de facto bans nor mandatory labelling can be justified by reference to common arguments concerning naturalness, agricultural policy (in particular the promotion of organic farming), socio-economic effects, or consumers' right to choose.

Functionalized Helical ß-Peptoids.

Peptidomimetic foldamers adopting well-defined three-dimensional structures while being stable toward proteolysis are of interest in biomedical research, chemical biology, and biomimetic materials science. Despite their backbone flexibility, ß-peptoids containing N-( S)-1-(1-naphthyl)ethyl ( Ns1npe) side chains can fold into unique triangular prism-shaped helices. We report herein the successful introduction of amino groups onto robustly folded ß-peptoid helices by construction and incorporation of novel chiral building blocks. This is the first example of an X-ray crystal structure of a linear ß-peptoid containing more than one type of side chain. We thus present a unique foldamer design comprising a robustly folded core with functionalized side chains protruding perpendicular to the helical axis to provide a highly predictable display of functional groups. This work paves the way for development of ß-peptoid foldamers with a desired function, such as catalytic properties or as scaffolds enabling polyvalent display.

Accelerating the Domestication of New Crops: Feasibility and Approaches.

The domestication of new crops would promote agricultural diversity and could provide a solution to many of the problems associated with intensive agriculture. We suggest here that genome editing can be used as a new tool by breeders to accelerate the domestication of semi-domesticated or even wild plants, building a more varied foundation for the sustainable provision of food and fodder in the future. We examine the feasibility of such plants from biological, social, ethical, economic, and legal perspectives.

Synthetic Biology and the Moral Significance of Artificial Life: A Reply to Douglas, Powell and Savulescu.

I discuss the moral significance of artificial life within synthetic biology via a discussion of Douglas, Powell and Savulescu's paper 'Is the creation of artificial life morally significant'. I argue that the definitions of 'artificial life' and of 'moral significance' are too narrow. Douglas, Powell and Savulescu's definition of artificial life does not capture all core projects of synthetic biology or the ethical concerns that have been voiced, and their definition of moral significance fails to take into account the possibility that creating artificial life is conditionally acceptable. Finally, I show how several important objections to synthetic biology are plausibly understood as arguing that creating artificial life in a wide sense is only conditionally acceptable.