Embedding ethics in synthetic life research: A case study on Ethical Foresight Analysis

Background: Innovative research in emerging fields may give rise to future ethical issues. Yet at developmental stages it cannot be reliably known what those issues are. This presents a problem, because it is necessary to anticipate and control for future issues at an early stage. To address this problem, early implementation of ethics tracks in such research makes for an underexplored methodology. The study conducted in this paper aims to contribute to this development by asking what methodologically sound ethical forecasting amounts to and how to best incorporate this. We describe the setup, execution and outcome of an Ethical Foresight Analysis (EFA) conducted with the DarChemDN research program, a multi-study collaboration into the creation of synthetic life from inorganic self-replicating molecules. Methods: We performed an Ethical Foresight Analysis covering all 10 biochemical studies of DarChemDN. The Delphi methodology was used for extraction and aggregation of expert knowledge. Results: The study resulted in 12 identified and assessed ethical issues related to DarChemDN’s synthetic life research. Discussion: This paper discusses these outcomes and provides a critical assessment of how this EFA fits into an ethics track using Floridi and Strait’s (2021) comprehensive evaluation of EFA’s in general and the Delphi methodology in particular.