NBICS and Law: A Foresight Exercise : NBICS and Law: A Foresight Exercise Dr. Gregor Wolbring
University of Calgary/Center for Nanotechnology in Society, Arizona State University
www.bioethicsanddisability.org
http://www.innovationwatch.com/commentary_choiceisyours.htm
Blog:http://wolbring.wordpress.com/
gwolbrin@ucalgary.ca
Gregor.Wolbring@asu.edu
Maslow's hierarchy of needs Canadian index of wellbeing : Maslow's hierarchy of needs Canadian index of wellbeing
NBICS: NBICS (a) nanoscience and nanotechnology;
(b) biotechnology and biomedicine, including genetic engineering;
(c) information technology, including advanced computing and communications;
(d) cognitive science (neuro engineering)
e) synthetic biology
Law areas impacted: Law areas impacted Personhood
Health
Privacy
Cultural identity
Safety
Trade
Environment
Intellectual Property
Animal
NBICS triggered Paradigm changes: NBICS triggered Paradigm changes Moving from Species-typical functioning to Beyond species-typical functioning
Moving from curative to enhancement medicine?
Moving from human rights to sentient rights?
Moving from ableism towards transhumanization of ableism
Moving towards the generation of a new social groups (techno poor disabled) and towards an ability divide
Moving from nature based commodities (i.e. cooper, rubber) towards nanoformulated commodities towards atomic commodities (molecular manufacturing)
Moving from understanding life to designing life?
Moving from dissecting life towards building life base-pair by base-pair
Synthetic Biology: Synthetic Biology
Synthetic Biology: Synthetic Biology is A) the design and construction of new biological parts, devices, and systems, and B) the re-design of existing, natural biological systems for useful purposes.
Slide8: Energy Production And Storage
Humans that photosynthesize
Superefficient agriculture via altered nutrient uptake (nitrogen fixing plants, etc)
New Devices And Assembly
Collagen protein construction of molecular assemblies
Nanofabrication of micro and macro materials
New biological pathways
Template independent DNA synthesis
Molecular Medical Devices
Reversal of Aging
Disease Fighting
Implantable living battery for medical device. out of electric eel cells.
beneficial bacterial infections programmed to augment immunity, provide needed vitamins, etc.
cells that circulate in the body (extension of immune system) Synthetic Biology Applications
Slide9: You Me Genics
cybernetics
self repair bodies
external human processing
Programmed Organisms
Controlled crop maturing (count days)
chemically controlled pets
changing behavior
programmable pets
biological robots
syntho-eukaryotic cell
consumer products
Smart Materials
Smart paint
living self-repairing materials (inhabited by colony of engineered cells)
Synthetic Biology Applications
Slide10: Sensors
smart sensors
noise detection and manipulation
use cells to read, process, output information
detect arbitrary substances
self-reproducing chemical/radioactivity sensors
detect biotoxins and encapsulate. flash when it does.
responsive materials. oil lubricants by design/need
specific detection of chemicals by proteins
tools to measure concentration of protein in cell
ecosystem debugger (read/write)
single event/interaction detection (visualization)
Intelligent Biosensors Synthetic Biology Applications
Synthetic Biology: Questions: Synthetic Biology: Questions How could synthetic biology make the biological risk & security landscape worse or better?
What are biological risks and why do they exist?
Can humans engineer pathogens that are more dangerous than those found in nature?
Is there a useful list of "top 100" biological risks or do such lists themselves pose a dangerous distraction from recognizing a dynamic, agile threat landscape?
Is biological safety possible?
Should pathogen research be conducted in secret?
Can defensive pathogen research be successfully conducted in secret?
Should synthetic biology researchers be subject to government background checks?
Can one country successfully implement a biological security program in isolation?
Should biological security measures be open or closed? Centralized or distributed?
Synthetic Biology: Statements: Synthetic Biology: Statements DNA as the really real self.
Dignity is intactness of the being.
Nature is fixed.
Nature is normative.
Suffering is what defines the human condition.
Slopes are slippery.
Dual-use is inevitable.
Mistakes are inevitable.
We will be as gods.
The marketplace will distort science.
An unfair world (inequity).
What's actually possible? What's going to happen? Material issues...
Synthetic Biology: Intellectual Property : Synthetic Biology: Intellectual Property Relationship of synthetic biology to intellectual property law has been largely unexplored.
The relevant research space already contains broad patents on foundational technology.
Synthetic biology commons? Tools of open source – property rights coupled with viral licensing
Synthetic Biology: Intellectual Property : Synthetic Biology: Intellectual Property What is patentable and/or copyrightable?
Broad biological functions
Specific sequences
Specific uses
Sources of uncertainty in synthetic biology as related to IPR definitions
What are effects of alternate definitions of what is patentable and copywritable on
development of field?
efficiency?
justice?
Synthetic Biology: Intellectual Property : Synthetic Biology: Intellectual Property Patents on fundamental ideas in synthetic biology Example: A patent on the idea of a biological part: a piece of DNA with specific function that can be combined with another part in a predefined fashion. Such a patent would be impossible to circumvent. It represents a fundamental concept that underpins synthetic biology.
See Stanford patent on System and method for simulating operation of biochemical systems. United States Patent 5914891
Patents on fundamental biologial functions Example: A patent on a genetically-encoded inverter (i.e. a device that takes an input signal and produces and inverted output signal encoded in DNA). Such a patent would be almost impossible to circumvent because it represents a basic biological function that is of use in a range of synthetic biological systems.
See US Dept of Health patent on Molecular computing elements, gates and flip-flops. United States Patent 6774222
See Boston University patent on Multi-state genetic oscillator. United States Patent 6737269
See Boston University patent on Bistable genetic toggle switch. United States Patent 6841376
See Boston University parent on Adjustable threshold switch. United States Patent 6828140
Patents on classes of biological molecules with a particular function Example: A patent on the use of zinc finger proteins to bind a specific sequence of DNA. Such a patent is not impossible to circumvent because there are other proteins that bind DNA and that could be engineered to bind new sequences. However, due to the previous effort that has been invested in zinc finger proteins, it would require a considerable investment of time and money to find a substitute solution. Additionally, zinc finger proteins are widely acknowledged to represent the most elegant solution to the general problem of having proteins that bind to every possible DNA sequence and thus circumventing such a patent might involve having to pursue a "second-rate" solution.
See MIT patent on Poly zinc finger proteins with improved linkers. United States Patent 6903185
See Scripps Research Institute patent on Zinc finger binding domains for GNN. United States Patent 6610512
See Sangamo Biosciences, Inc. patent on Regulation of endogenous gene expression in cells using zinc finger proteins. United States Patent 6607882
Patent on a particular biological molecule. Example: A patent on the sequence of a particular protein that senses light and transmits a signal into the cell. Such a patent would likely be fairly easy to circumvent because there are probably a few amino acids that could be changed in the protein such that it would it would still be functional yet not have the exact same sequence as specified in the patent. Note that there are of course exceptions to this rule: there are some proteins that have been so optimized for a specific function that any mutation in the sequence supposedly leads to less functionality (for instance, the drug Ziconitide which is a peptide). However, such proteins are reasonably rare exceptions.
Nanotechnology: Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology: Nanotechnology Molecular manufacturing or molecular nanotechnology. It might be become a reality by 2010, likely will by 2015, and almost certainly will by 2020.
‘Nanoscale technology’ and nanoscale sciences covering research and development products, ideas and processes with controlled size below 300/100nm.
Nano Regulation: For what? : Nano Regulation: For what?
Nano Regulation: For what?: Nano Regulation: For what? Nanofabrication
Methods for making materials, devices and structures with dimensions less than 100 nm.
2. Nanocharacterisation and nanometrology
Novel techniques for characterisation, measurement and process control for dimensions less than 100 nm.
3. Nano-modelling
Theoretical and numerical techniques for predicting and understanding the behaviour of systems and
processes with dimensions less than 100 nm.
4. Properties of nanomaterials
Size-dependent properties of materials that are structured on dimensions of 100 nm or below.
5. Bionanotechnology
The use of nanotechnology to study biological processes at the nanoscale, and the incorporation of nanoscale
systems and devices of biological origin in synthetic structures.
6. Nanomedicine
The use of nanotechnology for diagnosing and treating injuries and disease.
7. Functional nanotechnology devices and machines
Nanoscale materials, systems and devices designed to carry out optical, electronic, mechanical and magnetic
functions.
8. Extreme and molecular nanotechnology
Functional devices, systems and machines that operate at, and are addressable at, the level of a single
molecule, a single atom, or a single electron.
9. Nanomanufacturing
Issues associated with the commercial-scale production of nanomaterials, nanodevices and nanosystems.
10. Nanodesign
The interaction between individuals and society with nanotechnology. The design of products based on
nanotechnology that meet human needs.
11. Nanotoxicology and the environment
Distinctive toxicological properties of nanoscaled materials; the behaviour of nanoscaled materials,
structures and devices in the environment.
http://www.softmachines.org/wordpress/?p=203
Molecular manufacturing: Molecular manufacturing
Nano Regulation: For what?: Nano Regulation: For what?
Nano Regulation: For what?: Nano Regulation: For what?
Nano Regulation: For what?: Nano Regulation: For what?
Nano Regulation: When?: Nano Regulation: When?
Regulation I: Regulation I
Nano-regulation:When? : Nano-regulation:When? "By 2015-just 10 years time," said Rocco, "I
expect least half of the newly designed advanced
materials and Manufacturing Processes will be built
using control at the nanoscale in at least one of the
key components.“ When nanotechnology is
integrated into that many products, it will be almost
pointless to talk about nanotech products. http://www.nanotechbuzz.com/50226711/the_end_of_nanotechnology.php
Nano Regulation: For whom? : Nano Regulation: For whom?
Nano Regulation: For whom?: Nano Regulation: For whom?
Nano Regulation: For whom?: Nano Regulation: For whom?
Regulation III: Regulation III
NBICS regulation: For Whom? : NBICS regulation: For Whom? If one looks at which social groups are mentioned within ‘Nanotechnology Regulation’ one can clearly see a hierarchy with disabled people and indigenous people on the bottom. This is an indication of the prevailing biases within the nanotechnology regulation for whom discourse
The much higher hits with patients versus disabled people indicates a very medical flavour of the nanotechnology regulation discourse
Longevity, Immortality Technology: Longevity, Immortality Technology
Enhancement of Animals:: Enhancement of Animals:
NBICS and Health Law : NBICS and Health Law
NBIC-medicine Taxonomy (Canada): NBIC-medicine Taxonomy (Canada) Nanomedicine Taxonomy Briefing Paper, by Neil Gordon and Uri Sagman http://www.regenerativemedicine.ca/nanomed/Nanomedicine%20Taxonomy%20(Feb%202003).PDF
NBIC-Medicine Taxonomy : NBIC-Medicine Taxonomy
Regulating Health Applications: Regulating Health Applications http://www.nanoroad.net/index.php?topic=download; http://www.nanoroad.net/download/roadmap_mh.pdf
NBICS-Medicine: NBICS-Medicine
NBICS application: Artificial Hippocampus: NBICS application: Artificial Hippocampus
Artificial Hippocampus: Legal Challenge: Artificial Hippocampus: Legal Challenge
Bionic Implant RFID Chip:: Bionic Implant RFID Chip: Bionic Implants:
When Kevin Warwick lifted his finger, his wife Irena felt as if a bolt of lightning ran down her palm and into her own finger. In what they billed as the first direct link between nervous systems, the couple had electrodes surgically implanted in their arms and linked by radio signals to a computer. Blindfolded for the experiment, they could feel when their spouse's finger moved
Veri Chip
Body Morphing/modification community,
Magnetic field sensor implants/Magnetic Vision
Bionic Implant RFID Chip: Legal Challenge: Bionic Implant RFID Chip: Legal Challenge May 2, 2006—Wisconsin's legislative branch cleared a bill late last week that would ban anyone from implanting RFID microchips into people without their consent The legislation prohibits anyone, including employers or government agencies, from requiring people to have microchips implanted in them. Violators would face fines of up to $10,000.
Berkeley robotic laboratory http://www.me.berkeley.edu/hel/bleex.htm : Berkeley robotic laboratory http://www.me.berkeley.edu/hel/bleex.htm
/: / http://www.3sat.de/3sat.php?http://www.3sat.de/nano/bstuecke/64605
NBIC-Medicine: NBIC-Medicine
Slide46: Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance:
Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information Technology and Cognitive Science
NBICS-Medicine: Some questions different answers different regulations priorities and laws: NBICS-Medicine: Some questions different answers different regulations priorities and laws What is health? How to define the problem of ‘ill health’ and the solutions to the problem?
Health for whom? How to deal most effectively with the needs of the marginalized and global health/neglected diseases?
What would the gender perspective be around NBICS medicine especially enhancement medicine?
How are indigenous people affected?
Disabled people ? Who?
Can one draw a line between therapy and enhancement or between therapeutic and non therapeutic enhancement?
Ableism,transhumanism, medicalization, transhumanization of medicalization
How to decide on R&D priorities?
How to govern science and technology?
How to evaluate the impact of NBICS and the accompanying sales pitches on Health Care?
Impact of NBICS on Health law questions
Changes driven by NBICS : Changes driven by NBICS Moving from Species-typical functioning to Beyond species-typical functioning
New transhumanist/enhancement model of health and the transhumanist/ enhancement model of “disability/ impairment
Change in concept of non-disabled person
Change in concept of disabled person
Change in concept of patient
What is Health?: What is Health? Includes social well being
Or
Is limited to mean medical health
WHO definition of health versus Canadian index of well-being
The transhumanist/enhancement model of health: The transhumanist/enhancement model of health So far “medical health” is characterized as the normative species typical functioning of biological systems whereas disease/ illness is defined as the species typical sub-normative functioning of biological systems.
Health/healthy not = species-typical, normative functioning.
Human bodies = limited, defective and work in progress till it obtained maximum (at any given time) enhancement (improvement) of its abilities, functioning and body structure.
The transhumanist/enhancement model of health: The transhumanist/enhancement model of health Transhumanist model = Every human being is a patient, a
client
Every intervention applied to the human body could be
classified as a medical intervention and therefore seen as a
medical technology
It elevates the medicalization of the healthy
dynamic to its logical endpoint by labeling enhancement
beyond species-typical body structures and functioning as a
Therapeutic intervention (transhumanization of medicalization
Health Law Challenge: Health Law Challenge Enhancement medicine to become a
growing, flourishing field of medicine
providing the remedy through surgery,
pharmaceuticals, implants and other means.
Health Law Challenge“ Enhancement medicine" favoured over "curative medicine“? : Health Law Challenge“ Enhancement medicine" favoured over "curative medicine“? From hierarchy of treatment of people with ill “species typical medical health”
Murray the designer of the Disability Adjusted life years
“ individuals prefer, after appropriate deliberation, to extend the life
of healthy individuals rather than those in a health state worse than
perfect health”
To favoring ‘enhancement medicine over ‘curative medicine’
“ individuals prefer, after appropriate deliberation, to ENHANCE the
life of healthy individuals rather than cure those in a health state worse
than perfect health.”
Health Law?: GETTING ON WITH BETTER HEALTH CARE Message
from Honourable Iris Evans Minister of Health and
Wellness Action 8: Make changes to legislation and
regulations September 2005
Provide choice in enhanced medical goods and services People will be able to choose enhanced medical goods and services beyond what doctors decide is medically necessary – for example, a special kind of hip replacement. Regional health authorities will be able to charge reasonable fees for enhanced goods and services over and above basic services.
http://www.health.gov.ab.ca/Key/reform/AHW_WebFinal_REV.pdf Health Law?
Health Law?: Health Law? Chaoulli decision is interpreted
as supporting right to health/health care
as supporting a two-tiered healthcare system.
as linked to article 15(1), “equal benefit in front of the law”.
So far: So far Non disabled person by default
So far a non-disabled person was someone whose body functioning was seen as performing within species typical acceptable parameters (medically healthy). The term non-disabled was used as a counterpart to the medical/patient type understanding of disabled people.
To be?: To be? Disabled entity by default?
The transhumanist model of health sees every Homo sapiens body as defective in need of improvement (above species-typical boundaries). Every Homo sapiens is by definition, “disabled” in the impairment /medical/patient sense.
Disabled people are those who are not able or who don’t want to improve themselves beyond Homo sapiens normative functioning. (techno poor disabled)
Slide58: Human Security
Maslow's hierarchy of needs Canadian index of wellbeing : Maslow's hierarchy of needs Canadian index of wellbeing
Human Security: Human Security Human security as in Economic
Security -- Food Security – Health
Security -- Environmental Security,
Personal Security, Community
Security -- Political Security
Freedom from Fear and Freedom
from Want. COMMISSION ON HUMAN SECURITY. COMMISSION ON HUMAN SECURITY HUMAN SECURITYNOW, 2003, 0-9741108-0-9, http://www.humansecurity-chs.org/finalreport/index.html , http://www.humansecurity-chs.org/finalreport/English/FinalReport.pdf
New: Self Identity Security, Ability Security
NBICS and education security/knowledge security: NBICS and education security/knowledge security Changing deliverance
Curriculum Design and access Just in time knowledge Global outsourcing – e-teachers on demand Ubiquitous computing and education for all for life-long learning Self-paced, multi-media, etc. Educational Technologies Virtual reality simulations
Changing Content
Changing People:
Individualized nutrition
Applications from cognitive and neurological sciences in education systems
Collective intelligence (CI) New center at MIT for CI http://cci.mit.edu/ How can people and computers be connected so that—collectively—they act more intelligently than any individuals, groups, or computers have ever done before?'
Intelligence enhancing environments
Stem cells for keeping brains young
Chemistry for brain enhancement
Physical training to enhance nervous system
Conscious-technology Continuum of intelligent environments and cyborgs Brain chips (in or on surface)
Slide62: Ableism is a network of beliefs, processes and practices that produce a particular kind of self, body and abilities which are projected as perfect and essential, while at the same time labelling deviation (real or perceived) from this essential self, body and abilities as a diminished state.
Historically ableism was used by a variety of groups as a tool to justify their elevated level of rights and status in relation to other groups.
Women were labelled as biologically fragile and emotional, and thus incapable of bearing the responsibility of voting, owning property, and retaining custody of their own children (2;3).
The Bell curve sold racism by linking it to cognitive abilities.
Today the concept of ableism plays itself out mostly in regards to disabled people where the issue revolves around 'species-typical functioning' versus 'subnormal species typical functioning' (1). Ableism
Self Identity Security: Self Identity Security
Slide64: Transhumanism “is a way of thinking about the future that is based on the premise that the human species in its current form does not represent the end of our development but rather a comparatively early phase”.Word Transhumanist Association
'I believe in transhumanism': once there are enough people who can truly say that, the human species will be on the threshold of a new kind of existence, as different from ours as ours is from that of Peking man. It will at last be consciously fulfilling its real destiny." 1957
Julian Huxley First Director-General of UNESCO
Transhumanism
A transhumanized version of ableism:: A transhumanized version of ableism: A new transhumanized form of ableism is appearing that takes into account the increased ability of science and technology R&D products for body modification and is “a network of beliefs, processes and practices that perceives the improvement of human body and functioning beyond species-typical boundaries as the norm, as essential and judges a non-enhanced human body as a diminished state of existence”.
Transhumanism and the law: Transhumanism and the law Campaign for the Rights of the Person A campaign to modify national laws and international human rights conventions to establish
(a) that bodily autonomy, reproductive rights, and cognitive liberty should be explicitly recognized and protected,
(b) that universal access to enabling technologies is a right in itself, and a precondition for all other rights, and that
(c) personhood, sentience, and capacity for having morally relevant interests are the bases of rights-bearing, not humanness or the human genome.
A need for Ability studies: A need for Ability studies The study of Ableism includes
the traditional disabled people,
the techno poor disabled,
the people who gain enhancements,
other non human targets for ability modifications,
new life forms,
the traditional non-disabled people.
"Disability results from experience of barriers and social factors at a personal or societal levels, in one or more domains, as expressed by an individual, with reference to wellbeing and as a consequence of the interaction with personal and environmental factors."
“Disability” leads to a lack of belonging to a local or global community
Slide68:
Which Ethics to use if Any?
The future of law: The future of law Natural, social, health sciences and legal questions are changing
The speed of change is increasing
Silo thinking is out
Trans-disciplinary thinking as an individual and as a team is in.
Foresight exercises are in
Law and regulation development has to be more proactive less reactive
Academic framework has to change on the teaching, investigation and funding level
Slide70: The Triangle of Enhancement Medicine, Disabled People, and the Concept of Health: A New Challenge for HTA, Health Research, and Health Policy
Gregor Wolbring
Published by the HTA unit of the AHFMR 2006/ now HTA is part of the Institute for Health Economics
http://www.ihe.ca/documents/hta/HTA-FR23.pdf