22nd January 2008
The ethics of banning medical research…
From the Author’s Note in Michael Crichton’s novel Next, which centers around different aspects of genetic research:
“Various groups of different political persuasions want to ban some aspect of genetic research. I agree that certain research ought not to be persued, at least for now. But as a practical matter, I oppose bans on research and technology.
“Bans can’t be enforced. I don’t know why we have not learned this lesson. From Prohibition to the war on drugs, we repeatedly think that behavior can be banned. Invariably we fail. And in a global economy, bans take on other meanings: even if you stop research in one country, it still goes on in Shanghai. So what have you accomplished?
“Of course, hope springs eternal, and fantasies never die: various groups imagine they can negotiate a global ban on certain research. But to the best of my knowledge, there has never been a successful global ban on anything. Genetic research is unlikely to be the first.”
Leave a Reply
To reply to this post, please enter your name and write your comment in the textbox below. Some HTML tags are allowed, but others will be stripped if you enter them in your comments.