Playing God

The advent of the news concerning the "creation of a living organism" has sparked much controversy. Headlines like "Craig Venter is not playing God yet", or "Researchers create first 'synthetic life'" (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1279988/Artificial-life-created-Craig-Venter--wipe-humanity.html) play into the hands of those with a particular agenda and whom really base their rejection of this breakthrough not on the merits of the discovery itself, but on misguided convictions and beliefs that they possess. When understanding the actual methodologies and products produced as a result of this new development in science, the sacrilegious notion of "man-made" life becomes less apparent. For a better understanding of what this discovery means, we first need to grasp what exactly was "created” in this particular instance.

According to the group of scientists working on this latest development, the definition of the "synthetic cell" is a “cell controlled by a genome assembled from chemically synthesized pieces of DNA.” In addition, the cytoplasm or the liquid part is of the host cell. To further clarify, DNA was synthesized first from yeast, then was modified in-vitro and in-silico, and then transplanted into a bacterial cell. With the assistance of the recipient bacterial cell, the artificial/modified genome was able to self-replicate its content. So, in time, all of the cells present in the bacteria originate from the “synthetic” part of this system. [1] In essence, it is synthetic, but partially synthetic, since other natural cells were used and assisted in its production. Dr Francis Collins of the National Institute of Health makes a great analogy to assist our understanding. He said in an interview with Business Weekly,

“Imagine that bioengineers could program genes to grow into a fully functioning heart,” Collins said. “If you transplanted that into someone, the recovered patient wouldn’t be a synthetic individual, just a very lucky person.” [2]