Bringing the Public to the Editing Table: Governance of New Genome Editing Tools in Norway

• In Event: Interrupting Innovation: Pausing to Examine New Biotechnologies - II

Abstract

In Norway, the rapid development of new genome editing technology has currently resulted in a revision of the 25-year-old Gene Technology Act. This paper has examined this process to investigate how the various actors involved attempt to influence the regulation of this new technology in various ways in the course of the hearing period of this preliminary statement.

In December 2017, The Norwegian Biotechnology Advisory Board (NBAB) published a preliminary statement due to the current law’s inadequacy to regulate the methods and results that new genome editing technology can bring. The advisory board drew up a suggestion of a new regulatory framework for genetically modified organisms, simultaneously determining that products resulting from new genome editing technology such as CRISPR Cas9 should be labelled as genetically modified organisms (GMOs). As part of this process, the NBAB made unprecedented initiatives to engage stakeholders and the public in the early process of carving out a new regulatory framework and “the modernization of the Gene Technology Act”.

This paper explores this specific governance process, and discuss how new actors are seizing, performing and negotiating responsibility in novel ways. Through the analysis of documents such as the preliminary and final statements made by the NBAB, the written submissions from stakeholders and public actors responding to this statement, this paper will contribute to STS by offering knowledge on public involvement in the regulation of genome editing, as well as offering new perspectives on responsibility, in the governance of new biotechnology.

Author

• Marit Svingen, Norwegian U. Of Science And Technology (NTNU)