Team:UCL/Practice/Debate

Speed Debate

Neuroethics + Synthetic Biology

In order to further investigate public opinion on fusing the controversial fields of synthetic biology and neuroscience, in terms of bringing genetic modification to the brain, and in so doing perhaps changing the very fabric of what makes us, us, we organised a ‘Speed Debate’ at UCL’s Print Room Café on the 31st of August 2013.

The Event

We decided on formatting the Speed Debate in two separate parts. The first part of the event would consist of guest speakers giving a short speech on their thoughts about the ethical and practical concerns of synthetic biology and neuro-ethics. The second part of the event, the main event, would commence immediately after the speeches. The audience is arranged into small tables of 6 to 8 persons. Each table was facilitated by one iGEM member to ensure healthy discussion and that valuable opinions and thoughts are noted down. After every 15 minutes, a new question was set for the room and the Speed Debaters are shuffled in a way that people meet the maximum amount of new people. This allows people to discuss and debate diverse set of people and ideas.

Audience

For this event, we specifically targeted a non-science based community. As a measure to diversify the audience we advertised through various means. We discussed with Dr. Hilary Jackson, the Public Engagement Coordinator at UCL, on how to reach and attract our target audience. We advertised our event through Facebook, Twitter, London Futurist Groups, Theories of Consciousness, Alzheimer’s Society and other platforms. Over 70 participants of all ages and disciplines attended the Speed Debate. We discussed and debated on neuro-ethics issues with people from wide and interesting backgrounds such as graphics design, journalism, Alzheimer’s Society, general practitioners, software, patient’s family members, just to name a few.

Speakers

Key to our event, we had 5 guest speakers who gave provoking food-for-thought. We had speeches on synthetic biology by bioartist and C-lab representative Howard Boland (http://c-lab.co.uk/default.aspx?id=15&authorid=2), SynBio Society President Philipp Boeing, UCL iGEM members Andy Cheng (link to Andy’s profile) and Alexander Bates (Link to Alex’s profile), and Shirley Nurock (http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=231) from the London Area Research Network of Alzheimer’s Society UK.

Setup

We arranged a room from 7pm to 10pm at the Print Room Cafe on the UCL campus. We chose this venue because it was a comfortable environment and had a bar, which provided the participants with alcoholic beverages, snacks and refreshments. Before the event, we decorated the room with thought-provoking quotes and a simple poster depicting our project circuit

Questions

We devised four key questions that debaters from all walks of life discussed in a friendly and informal setting. Below are the speed debate group discussion questions, and some of the comments we recorded from our guest debaters.

'''1) How do you feel about changing the genetic structure of organisms, to make materials of use in industries?''' “God gave us the brains to ‘play God’ – so why not use them?” – Guest “GMOs could push us backwards! We don’t really know what’s going on” – Guest 2) How comfortable do you feel about the use of synthetic biology in medicine? “…many diseases are not just about death but serious human suffering – it would be wrong not to use this technology to try and find a solution” - Guest “I’m comfortable with this, subject to proper risk assessment” – Guest “Man’s reach often exceeds his grasp” – Guest