Team:Calgary/Human Practices/Ethics/Valencia

This year, the University of Calgary participated in the ethics survey put on by the Valencia iGEM Team. The survey asked questions regarding understanding of what synthetic biology was, and general opinions surrounding ethical issues such as genetic modification and patenting. Along with some of the participants in our iGEM Summer Camp, we are the largest team to have all members complete this survey.

The medal we have earned from the Valencia iGEM Team is shown below, and the complete results of their survey can be found HERE.



While Valencia (and other teams) chose to explore the multiple viewpoints of SynBio issues through surveys, we decided to try a different approach: that is, an online conference done in Second Life. The accessibility of the online community in Second Life (as long as one has an internet connection), allows us to reach a large range of potential participants, similar to a survey. However, there are some key differences in these approaches, and they have been outlined HERE.