| dc.description.abstract | Over the course of the next decade, several nonhuman species are expected to be specifically conscripted and bioengineered for open release into the environment to address Anthropocene-related challenges, motivating a need for review of existing governance prior to any implementation of these novel technologies. One example of this is the “Mice Against Ticks Project” conducted by the Sculpting Evolution Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab, which plans to turn the white footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) into the first genetically engineered mammal to control the spread of Lyme bacteria to ticks. This proposed project was promoted as a community guided “responsive science” approach to an ecological intervention, emphasizing the group’s transparent communication and responsivity to public risk-related concerns arising from the alteration of a native species.
A multispecies oriented ethnographic investigation was conducted to evaluate how the responsive science model would enact claims of transparency and responsivity and to what extent upstream engagement practices were ethically comprehensive and inclusive of both human and nonhuman concerns. Interviews and extended observations of a range of human and nonhuman residents conducted over time, indicated that responsive science outreach and proposed ecological oversight of the project in the island venue was demonstrably lacking, identifying ethical and methodological reasons to vastly improve the depth and breadth of engagement efforts.
Inclusion strategies in upstream engagement efforts should be locally nuanced and include nonhuman and environmental interests as a mandatory step to insure potentially affected parties and/or their proxies are included in decision making processes in eco-interventions of this type.
Given the unknown risks associated with the project, the failure to enact engagement claims and the existence of more benign tick-borne disease prevention strategies presently available and in development, the implementation of less fraught approaches is warranted.
Keywords: Multispecies ethnography, Mice Against Ticks, Kevin Esvelt, gene drive, CRISPR-cas9, Lyme disease. | en_GB |
