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Let's press pause on playing God

Craig Venter, the controversial American geneticist, announced last month that he had “created life in a lab”, by constructing the world’s first synthetic cell. Venter told a press conference: “This is the first self-replicating species we've had on the planet whose parent is a computer.”

The scientific community hasn't been unanimously approving of this stunning development. Venter's artificial life form has been called Synthia and, less flatteringly, Frankenbug or Pandora's Bug. He has been given the nickname Darth Venter and has been roundly criticised for “playing God” as well as for “playing human”. Now many are calling for a moratorium until all the implications have been properly discussed.