Virtues for Innovation in Practice (VIPs): A Virtue Ethics Account of Responsibility for Biotechnology

Advances in biotechnology are rapidly expanding possibilities for engineering life, such as through gene editing. These novel applications beget empirical and ethical questions in both the practice of innovation and usage. Modifying organisms comes with uncertainties concerning issues of safety and security, sharing benefits, and naturalness. Biotechnology is changing how we engineer life to our benefit, leading to serious implications for conceptions of “the good life” for human flourishing. Cultivating virtues for innovation in practice (VIPs) can help us make responsible choices for the good life. This research will take up the task of formulating such a framework. The main research question is: how can empirical ethics provide a virtue ethics account of moral responsibility for uncertainties in biotechnology while building on existing normative frameworks of innovators and users to become part of practices, and what is this account? This project will study biotechnology practices during innovation and usage through a philosophical lens, notably through the work of Alasdair MacIntyre. The focus emerges from an understanding that practices are where choices get made, a community’s norms and values take shape, and moral agents deal with problems and/or uncertainties. Since virtues are practicable and ethicists of technology want those practicing and using biotechnology innovations to act responsibly when faced with uncertainties, a virtue ethics account of responsibility is necessary and helpful. Combining empirical ethnographic research methods with conceptual analyses in the ethics of technology, the project will uncover existing ways of dealing with problems or uncertainties, develop a conceptual framework based on virtue ethics, and yield practical recommendations for policy, research, industry, and education.