From ‘Deficit’ to Democracy: Dialogue, Deliberation and Public Participation in the Biosciences

Pennington J¹*

1. Ministry for the Environment, Wellington, New Zealand

In 2000 The New Government established a Royal Commission on Genetic Modification. The Commission consulted widely within New Zealand.

During the course of its deliberations on genetic modification The Commission heard and received many objections and concerns concerning genetic modification based either on ethical, cultural and or spiritual grounds. The Commission noted that no existing regulatory body was equipped to address these kinds of issues and recommended the establishment of a Bioethics Council. The government accepted the Commission’s recommendation and established Toi te Taiao: the Bioethics Council in 2002, with a mandate to inquire into all forms of biotechnology.

Governments are increasingly aware that new developments in biotechnologies and nanotechnology present complex and often difficult ethical and moral dilemmas. To ensure that citizens are fully informed of the potential for good, as well as the risks these new technologies pose new and innovative ways of encouraging public participation in decision making are being developed.

The Bioethics Council has recently explored other means of engaging community involvement by conducting one and two day dialogues with a wide cross section of the New Zealand public on the subject of human genes in other organisms. The Council is developing and experimenting with a range of dialogic methods, aimed at encouraging New Zealanders to explore and discuss the complex and difficult questions new biotechnologies present, and draw these conclusions into the policy arena.

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