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The Influenza Controversy: Should Limits Be Placed on Science?
Author(s) -
Gostin Lawrence O.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
hastings center report
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.515
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1552-146X
pISSN - 0093-0334
DOI - 10.1002/hast.44
Subject(s) - dual (grammatical number) , harm , influenza a virus subtype h5n1 , government (linguistics) , political science , law and economics , process (computing) , medical research , sociology , epistemology , environmental ethics , engineering ethics , law , computer science , medicine , virology , philosophy , engineering , linguistics , virus , pathology , operating system
Should government have the power to place limits on a scientific pursuit that holds the potential for both good and harm—on what is called “dual‐use research”? That is the highly charged question surrounding research to genetically modify influenza A (H5N1) to render it more easily transmissible from human to human. There is seldom a “right” answer to dual‐use research, but a fair, inclusive, and transparent process—building on the NSABB model—should improve decision‐making. A local institutional panel should evaluate dual‐use research based on the following structured ethical framework .