Ethical ramifications of emerging sciences like synthetic biology have received quite a bit of focus from second order observers of those sciences, such as journalists and policy makers, as well as from funders of the sciences' research. Ethical questions are often asked in the context of particular forms of spirituality or expectations of responsibility, and the search for a proper practice of ethics within synthetic biology is marked also by a search for an understanding of this context. What do questions of ethics look like in relation to synthetic biology? What lessons can we learn from past or current emerging sciences and the ethical questions they have faced? In this collection, we seek to explain and learn through these past and current case studies of ethical inquiry.