Conclusion

Abstract

This chapter draws together insights developed in the introductory and empirical chapters. It provides a summary of the distinct types of practical challenges that the field of synthetic biology has raised; as a source of ethical unease for scientific community, and as part of national and international quests to build and exploit and manage the field. A key argument made in this chapter is that the way in which the field has been addressed in these contexts has involved different preoccupations and working assumptions related to innovation and the prospects and limits of more globalist approaches to governance.