How should public policy respond to the challenges of modern biotechnology?

Modern biotechnology has been a topic of public and political debate around the world for over 30 years; continuing scientific breakthroughs keep it high on the agenda. Policy responses have been diverse, fragmented and incoherent, at levels ranging from local regions to agencies of the United Nations, but particularly in national administrations and the European Union. Reactions have been ambivalent, combining fears about conjectural risks with concern to maintain competitiveness and exploit beneficial applications. Adverse public perceptions have become a significant influence on policy, in combination with more cynical and self-interested motives of some of the players in policy debates. Future options, in Europe and elsewhere, are constrained by past and continuing mistakes and over-reactions.