Two unresolved issues in community engagement for field trials of genetically modified mosquitoes

ABSTRACT

There is an emerging consensus among scientists, ethicists, and public health officials that substantive and effective engagement with communities and the wider public is required prior to releasing genetically modified mosquitoes into the environment. While there is little disagreement about the need for community and public engagement prior to releasing genetically modified mosquitoes into the environment, two important issues have not been resolved, namely: defining the community and dealing with potential conflicts between the community and the wider public. This commentary addresses these unresolved issues.

KEYWORDS:

• Field trials
• genetically modified mosquitoes
• community engagement
• ethics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

¹ Some other important issues have also not been resolved, such as how to engage the community effectively [16–18] and how to incorporate community engagement into existing laws and policies [11–14], but my commentary will not focus on these issues.

² Gene drives are naturally occurring genetic sequences that bias Mendelian inheritance in favor of those sequences.

³ Horizontal gene transfer is a process in which DNA moves between organisms other than by sexual reproduction. Viruses can transfer DNA to numerous species, including humans. Horizontal gene transfer can transfer DNA across species [3].

⁴ Procedural justice refers to fairness in a decision-making process; substantive justice refers to fairness related to the outcome of the process [28,29,42].

⁵ In theory, the opposite type of conflict could argue, i.e. the community might seek access to GM mosquitoes that have been not approved by the public. However, given the structure of biotechnology regulation in most countries, this issue is not likely to arise because approval at the national level is required before community approval is sought [9,13].

⁶ It is likely that cases involving conflicts between the community and the public will end up in the courts, which will have to weigh the interests of the community in relation to the interests of society.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences [ZIAES102646-10].