Biomodifying technologies—such as gene editing, induced pluripotent stem cells, and bioprinting—are being developed for a wide range of applications, from pest control to lab-grown meat. In medicine, regulators have responded to the challenge of evaluating modified ‘natural’ material as a therapeutic ‘product’ by introducing more flexible assessment schemes. Attempts have also been made to engage stakeholders across the globe on the acceptable parameters for these technologies, particularly in the case of gene editing. Regulatory flexibility and stakeholder engagement are important, but a broader perspective is also needed to respond to the potential disruption of biomodification. Our case-study technologies problematize basic ideas—such as ‘nature’, ‘product’, and ‘donation’—that underpin the legal categories used to regulate biotechnology. Where such foundational concepts are rendered uncertain, a socially responsive and sustainable solution would involve exploring evolutions in these concepts across different societies. We suggest that the global observatory model is a good starting point for this ‘Adaptive Societal Governance’ approach, in which a self-organizing network of scholars and interested parties could carry out the multi-modal (meta)analyses needed to understand societal constructions of ideas inherent to our understanding of ‘life’.

中文翻译：

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生物改造“自然”：从适应性监管到适应性社会治理

生物修饰技术——例如基因编辑、诱导性多能干细胞和生物打印——正在被开发用于广泛的应用，从害虫防治到实验室培育的肉类。在医学领域，监管机构通过引入更灵活的评估方案来应对将改性“天然”材料作为治疗“产品”进行评估的挑战。还尝试让全球利益相关者参与这些技术的可接受参数，特别是在基因编辑的情况下。监管灵活性和利益相关者的参与很重要，但还需要更广泛的视角来应对生物改造的潜在破坏。我们的案例研究技术将支撑用于监管生物技术的法律类别的基本概念（例如“自然”、“产品”和“捐赠”）问题化。在这些基本概念变得不确定的情况下，一个社会响应和可持续的解决方案将涉及探索这些概念在不同社会中的演变。我们建议全球观测站模型是这种“适应性社会治理”方法的一个很好的起点，在这种方法中，学者和利益相关方的自组织网络可以进行多模态（元）分析，以了解社会结构我们对“生活”的理解所固有的想法。