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Syn-bio Debate

About

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) refer to plants, animals and microorganism which are generally altered or manipulated by a non-natural means in order to incorporate genes from another organism, which share a similarity with synthetic biology. In addition to numerous scientific and technical challenges, both GMOs and synthetic biology raise ethical issues and biosecurity issues.

There is nothing ambiguous that GMOs and synthetic biology are capable of improving the quality of our life and handling a variety of global problems to a large extent. However, the dangers vs. benefits of GMOs are widely debated ever since its birth.

For the sake of arousing citizens’ interest to synthetic biology and trigger further reflection on GMOs, ZJU-CHINA held a debate among undergraduates on September 4 in 102 Room of West Teaching Area in ZJU campus. We invited two school-famous debate teams to give us an exhibition game and earned a tremendous response from audience. The topic for debate is “whether we should stop developing GMOs technology and synthetic biology” and the process of debate are as follows.

Documentary

Time: 14:00-16:00, Friday, September 4, 2015

Place: 102 Room of West Teaching Area, Zijingang Campus, Zhejiang University

Topic: Whether we should stop developing GMOs technology and synthetic biology

Two debate teams

First Round

Negative side [1st debater]:

Honorable judges, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, today I would like to state the opinion that “we shouldn’t stop developing GMOs technology and synthetic biology”.

There is no denying that developing GMOs can make great contributions to human beings. From the aspect of agriculture, a huge lack of foodstuff would pose a threat to human beings in the near future.

First and foremost, the areas of arable land are sharply decreasing or occupied by industrial land as the process of urbanization. Thus, improving unit area yield of agriculture product and in turn improving the total grain output is of great urgency. Furthermore, for the increase rate of human beings, global population is predicted to reach the number of 8.5 billion until 2030, so all the living material will be extremely limited. Among all the methods to solve this problem, developing GMOs and synthetic biology are just the most efficient ones. So, I’d like to point out that “we shouldn’t stop developing GMOs technology and synthetic biology”. Thank you.

Positive side [1st debater]:

My fellow debaters, I’m afraid I disagree with your opinion and reasons are as follows. As a country of 1.3 billion people, China is confronted with the population inflection point, and the increase rate of human beings will definitely slow down in the future. Moreover, nowadays sustainability has become a tendency of technology development, which means many materials can be recycled in the future.

I’d like to point out that GMOs and synthetic biology may probably lead to tremendous biological disaster just as many movies implied. Our technology cannot wholly predict the consequence of genetic modification. What’s worse, if GMOs and synthetic biology are illegally applied, we’re not able to detect the problem immediately. As far as I’m concerned, “we should stop developing GMOs technology and synthetic biology”. Thank you.

Second Round

Negative side [1st debater]:

Thank you for your reasons but I cannot agree with you. Indeed potential problems caused by GMOs and synthetic biology may not be detected quickly, but GMOs and genic engineering (GE) are one of the quickest solutions for the problem because these technology can mutate the target genes in a short period of time, which is superior to traditional technology. What’s more, laws and regulations related to GMOs are made step by step. In the future, the legal system will definitely be improved and thus many illegal application of GMOs can be prevented.

From my point of view, advantages of GMOs and synthetic biology also play an important role in controlling the side effects of pesticide and chemical fertilizer. For one thing, the drug resistance of many pests has a bad influence on grain output, while some sorts of pesticide of high efficiency are harmful to human beings thus cannot be used on a large scale. For another, the residue of pesticide, soil hardening and such problems effect the grain output as well. With the aid of GMOs and synthetic biology, crops themselves can resist pests so no extra chemicals would be added into soil.

Positive side [2nd debater]:

My fellow debaters, I feel the same way as you mentioned. Nevertheless, GMOs’ defects cannot be neglected. From the aspect of ecology, most GMOs have higher adaptability than ordinary crops so GMOs may compete with many wild species and then the biodiversity may probably be destroyed. Thank you.

Third Round

Negative side [3rd debater]:

Thanks, I have got the point. In order to avoid the problem you mentioned just now, we could restrict the planting or raising area of GMOs so that their existence will not pose any threat to biodiversity.

Although GMOs and synthetic biology are not that mature at present, corresponding research and experiments shouldn’t be stopped because starvation is still a severe global problem. GMOs and organisms modified by synthetic biology often cost less than ordinary products and are easier to plant or raise. Because of this, they are of great potential to solve the problem of starvation and can create more wealth for farmers.

Positive side [3rd debater]:

Thank you, my fellow debaters. Although GMOs and synthetic biology have many merits, they have not been widely accepted by people. Citizens’ distrust and rejection of GMOs may be the biggest obstacle on the way of promoting GMOs and synthetic biology.

Forth Round

Negative side [4th debater]:

Thanks. There is no doubt that making GMOs and synthetic biology widely accepted by most people is not that easy, because it will necessarily cost a lot to promote a new concept or technology. However, this kind of cost is worthy and escaping from the trend of technology is definitely not a wise option. In fact, the high cognitive cost and the manipulation from interesting groups are the main reasons for anti-GMOs.

Positive side [4th debater]:

Thank you for your suggestions. GMOs and synthetic biology may be beneficial in the future. However, the immature technology shouldn’t be applied in a large scale, for instance the large area of soybean planting. The unclear consequence of modification and other potential risk that probably appear after several decades pose a great threat to the future generation who eat soybean since childhood. Therefore, we hold the opinion that the GMOs and synthetic biology cannot be developed until we get a profound understanding of biology fundamental theory.

Summary

Simply from the aspect of technology, any kind of technology ought to be developed. Nevertheless, considering the social reality, the development of some sort of technology is restricted, such as nuclear technology, which is viewed to be evil. Although nuclear technology is potential to destroy the earth, we keep exploring it and have made such surprising achievements that nuclear energy can peacefully make contributions to our life.

Similar to nuclear technology, GMOs and synthetic biology are also technologies that are like a double-edged sword. It should be noticed that the significance of GMOs and synthetic biology in handling starvation and climate change, which potentially outweigh the side effect.

It is obvious that how many benefits a new technology could bring to someone determines how much support it will get from someone. Currently, developing GMOs and synthetic biology in China contradicts the benefits of those who guide public opinion, and the benefits of GMOs and synthetic biology couldn’t offset its potential side effect in people’s mind. To alter the situation, the government and research institution should rebuild the credibility and promote GMOs continually. Meanwhile, corresponding technology must be ready for future application.

The result of the debate does not necessarily indicate the development of GMOs and synthetic biology in reality, but the debate indeed attracts people’s attention to GMOs and synthetic biology. Many audiences were interested in our project and kept asking relevant questions. We sincerely hope that GMOs and synthetic biology could be further promoted and the ethic or moral problems of GMOs and synthetic biology can be considered on a deeper level. In the following years, ZJU-China will continue to hold such kind of debate in order to promote synthetic biology.