Aggregated News
There is less than a day to go before the popular crowdfunding site Kickstarter.com hands hundreds of thousands of dollars to a controversial project for the widespread and unregulated distribution of over half a million extreme-bioengineered seeds.
I already wrote about the project here. There's more background here.
Kickstarter, which as a company stands to make over $22,000 from the project, has steadfastly refused to comment on its listing of a project to make and distribute "glowing plants" using Synthetic Biology despite a stream of negative comments on its facebook page. As the funding deadline approaches public opposition to the 'Kickstarter Biohackers' is growing.
On Thursday morning my organisation ETC Group, who this week launched a 'KickStopper' campaign to directly challenge the project, will submit a petition calling on Kickstarter to update their ethical guidelines to exclude funding of bioengineered organisms. Those guidelines currently forbid Kickstarter from funding such comparatively benign projects as energy drinks and sunglasses. ETC Group contends that the funding of this project could open the floodgates to copycat biohacking projects. The petition...
I already wrote about the project here. There's more background here.
Kickstarter, which as a company stands to make over $22,000 from the project, has steadfastly refused to comment on its listing of a project to make and distribute "glowing plants" using Synthetic Biology despite a stream of negative comments on its facebook page. As the funding deadline approaches public opposition to the 'Kickstarter Biohackers' is growing.
On Thursday morning my organisation ETC Group, who this week launched a 'KickStopper' campaign to directly challenge the project, will submit a petition calling on Kickstarter to update their ethical guidelines to exclude funding of bioengineered organisms. Those guidelines currently forbid Kickstarter from funding such comparatively benign projects as energy drinks and sunglasses. ETC Group contends that the funding of this project could open the floodgates to copycat biohacking projects. The petition...