TY - JOUR

T1 - Synthetic livestock vaccines as risky interference with nature?

T2 - Lay and expert arguments and understandings of “naturalness”

AU - Ditlevsen, Kia

AU - Glerup, Cecilie

AU - Sandøe, Peter

AU - Lassen, Jesper

PY - 2020

Y1 - 2020

N2 - The article describes how the idea of “naturalness” was used by three different groups in arguments over the risk of livestock vaccines developed in synthetic biology. Based on interviews with two groups of scientific experts and focus groups with lay people in five European countries, and using Toulmin’s argument analysis as the analytical tool, the article maps and compares the different ways in which “naturalness” was used as a warrant. Several notions of “naturalness” are involved in lay people’s reasoning and several lay people’s understandings of risk relied on their perceptions of the “unnaturalness” of the synthetic vaccines. The notion of “naturalness” was used less by synthetic biology experts and not at all by vaccine experts. Lay people see the vaccine as less natural than other vaccines and therefore as a greater risk. In contrast, synthetic biology experts understand synthetic biology as natural, and relate naturalness, unpredictability and risk.

AB - The article describes how the idea of “naturalness” was used by three different groups in arguments over the risk of livestock vaccines developed in synthetic biology. Based on interviews with two groups of scientific experts and focus groups with lay people in five European countries, and using Toulmin’s argument analysis as the analytical tool, the article maps and compares the different ways in which “naturalness” was used as a warrant. Several notions of “naturalness” are involved in lay people’s reasoning and several lay people’s understandings of risk relied on their perceptions of the “unnaturalness” of the synthetic vaccines. The notion of “naturalness” was used less by synthetic biology experts and not at all by vaccine experts. Lay people see the vaccine as less natural than other vaccines and therefore as a greater risk. In contrast, synthetic biology experts understand synthetic biology as natural, and relate naturalness, unpredictability and risk.

U2 - 10.1177/0963662520906083

DO - 10.1177/0963662520906083

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 32072864

VL - 29

SP - 289

EP - 305

JO - Public Understanding of Science

JF - Public Understanding of Science

SN - 0963-6625

IS - 3

ER -