Well-known University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Art Caplan says that the achievement ranks as a discovery of historic significance, because it “would seem to extinguish the argument that life requires a special force or power to exist.” Asked about the significance of what the team had done, Venter described it as bringing about “a giant philosophical change in how we view life.”
而宾夕法尼亚大学的著名生物伦理学家阿特·凯普兰则把这一成果视为一个历史性的重大发现，因为它“似乎已经将生命是借由某种特殊的力量或者权力才得以存在的观点彻底推翻了。”而在被问到这个科学家小组的成就的重要性的时候，研究资助人温特则认为此举“为我们的生命观带来了重大的哲学意义上的变革。”