The Gene-Edited Babies Controversy in China: Field Philosophical Questioning

ABSTRACT

The concept of field philosophy challenges a common self-understanding in Western philosophy. One question regarding this challenge is the extent to which it might be relevant to a philosophical and cultural tradition other than that in which it originated. The birth of gene-edited babies in late 2018 in Shenzhen and subsequent response within China offer an occasion for considering such a question. A narrative review, emphasizing how discussions in China itself have unfolded, rather than the course of international discussions of this real-world problem, suggests a need to qualify the applicability of field philosophy beyond American and European contexts. Many English language reports fail to note the broad involvement from government agencies, scientific institutions, professional organizations, news media, and netizens (both academics and the public). What we called field philosophical journalism can help identify limitations in some non-Chinese perspectives and complement if not directly contribute to field philosophy.

KEYWORDS:

• Gene-edited babies
• China
• stakeholders
• RRI
• field philosophy

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Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

All data in this article are from publicly published websites and journals. For specific links and details, please see references.

Note on references

Citations from Chinese language media and web sites that are without authors are referenced with bracketed numbers and placed in References A. For all articles attributed to authors, the standard in-line reference protocol has been retained with references placed in References B.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant ‘Responsible Innovation Perspective on the Coupling Mechanism of Governance Strategy and Policy Tools in Emerging Technology Social Risk Management’ [number ZX20190228]; National Center for Science & Technology Evaluation under Grant ‘Theoretical and Applied Research on Responsible Innovation’ [number YJZX2019-11]. This work was also supported by ‘The ESI Discipline Construction Project of International Team Building of Dalian University of Technology’.

Notes on contributors

Ping Yan

Ping Yan is an Assistant Professor in the School of Marxism Studies at Dalian University of Technology. Her research interests are ethics of technology, engineering ethics and responsible innovation (RI).

Carl Mitcham

Carl Mitcham is a Visiting Professor in the School of Philosophy at Renmin University of China in Beijing and Professor Emeritus of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at Colorado School of Mines.