Who owns hazard? The role of ownership in the GM social experiment

Abstract

This extended abstract aims to conceptualize the introduction of genetically modified (GM) crops as a social experiment, in order to provide for a new ethical lens on forward looking responsibility. In a first step, I explain what the notion of social experiment allows us to explore with respect to forward-looking responsibility, namely: (1) the care for human lives; and (2) the multitude of actors who qualify as experimenters. In a second step, I look at how moral responsibility is currently distributed in the case of GM crops. The issues around GM crops, however, seem to be more about liability linked to property rights rather than forward looking moral responsibility, or linked to issues of justice in the context of international development. These observations then provide for a basis to explore philosophical notions of ownership and justice from Locke’s theory of property and Nozick’s entitlement theory, and investigate what is missing from these notions to construct a coherent framework for distributing forward looking responsibility in the case of GM crops. Finally, I suggest a notion of ownership that is more fluid to allow formulating conditions for a fair distribution of forward looking moral responsibility in the GM social experiment.