The Ethics of Protocells: Moral and Social Implications of Creating Life in the Laboratory. Mark A. Bedau and Emily C. Parke (Eds.). (2009, MIT Press.) $29.00, £21.95, 392 pages. ISBN-10: 0-262-51269-6, ISBN-13: 978-0-262-51269-5.

The Ethics of Protocells: Moral and Social Implications of Creating Life in the Laboratory. Mark A. Bedau and Emily C. Parke (Eds.). (2009, MIT Press.) $29.00, £21.95, 392 pages. ISBN-10: 0-262-51269-6, ISBN-13: 978-0-262-51269-5. This collection of articles is remarkably interesting not just for what it achieves, but also for how it departs from the course that is suggested by the title, subtitle, and first few pages of the book. The title promises the ethics of protocells and thus refers to a research program dedicated to the creation of a living technology that is entirely artificial and does not derive its notion of life from biology. For example, as distinct from synthetic biology and its quest for a minimal cell that retains the functionality of an organic cell, protocells do not require a DNA-based genome to reproduce themselves. As building blocks for nonbiological life forms, protocells might raise very different ethical questions from attempts to re-engineer life as we know it. However, due to the relative obscurity of protocell research and the current fascination with synthetic biology, these two projects are not held apart by the authors of the book even where they take care to accurately characterize protocell research. The bookʼs subtitle promises a consideration of implications of the creation of life in the laboratory—as if this has happened already or is imminent, at least: “The creation of fully autonomous protocells is only a matter of time” (p. 1). Thankfully, however, the authors do not speculate about the implications of something that only sooner or later might come to pass. Instead, many consider ways in which ethical and social considerations or the reflection of human practice can be incorporated into the research and development process itself. Paul Rabinow and Gaymon Bennett speak of a “mutually collaborative and enriching relationship” between biology, social science, and the humanities in order to cultivate a shared concern for human flourishing (pp. 278–281). In a similar vein, George Khushf notes that artificial life research involves a novel notion of scientific understanding and technical control: “One ‘controls’ by providing rules for an artificial universe. One then iteratively refines and tunes initial conditions and rules. But one does not directly construct the emerging patterns. These are novel, arise indirectly, and could not be anticipated in advance. This notion of control is more akin to the management of an estate or an ecosystem than the traditional top-down engineering design. It is in this emergent notion of control that we can find the kernel of an alternative notion of responsible agency” (pp. 241–242). The agency of researchers who stimulate emergent behaviors has close affinity to the agency of ethicists or policymakers who stimulate an innovative research process. This affinity serves as a common ground to develop a notion of responsible agency at the intersection, again, of the natural and social sciences and the humanities. This kind of integration and responsible practice are achieved where research and development tend to the care for self and others in order to create conditions of human flourishing. In policy terms, such care begins with the adoption of a precautionary approach, including the precautionary principle that in the case of great uncertainty about potential harm the burden of proof is shifted to the developers, who have to vouch for the safety of their products. Can this principle be applied to the early stages of possibly momentous research? By necessity, this question would appear to be surrounded by great uncertainty, but short of placing a moratorium on all such research, a more general idea of precaution might inform research practice on a daily basis. Per Sandin, Bill Durodié, and Andrew Hessel make specific proposals on how to develop this general idea. This book, then, is a series of highly reflective essays regarding the development and the conditions of public acceptability of emerging technologies in general and (especially in Khushfʼs and