issue 23

ShurenQUID: 3492102

23 Governments should place few, if any, restrictions on scientific research and development.

Time: 9:01 pm-9:35pm   

Nowadays, the issue of restrictions on scientific research placed by government has aroused and been widely discussed. Some people assert that government should place restrictions on development of scientific research because some scientific researches are against human ethic such as human cloning. In contrast, other people hold the opinion that government should not limit the freedom of scientific research since scientific development serves as the first driving force of social development. After a careful consideration of cons and pros, I think whether government restrict development of science is relied on a case-by-case basis.

To begin with, for basic scientific research like chemistry, physics, and materials science, government should grant freedom to them. Basic scientific research is essential for social development and does not challenge human ethic and moral standard. Researches in light industry produce an increasing number of products for people’s daily use. For example, the continuous research and exploring on computer science make our personal computers or laptops faster and faster. Computers and Internet fundamentally changed people’s communication. It makes our life much more easier. For this kind of scientific research, government should not put any restrictions on but encourage by financial aids or other forms of support.

However, some cutting-edge researches and technologies are challenging human ethic or simply dangerous. Human cloning is a newly developed technology, which can duplicate a human being in lab. Researched related to human cloning is prohibited by United Nations duo to ethical consideration. Government of course should ban that kind of scientific research, which will easily put whole mankind society into chaos. The other instance is atomic bomb. Nuclear weapons are too powerful. According to a recent survey, the total number of nuclear weapons in the world can destroy planet earth twice. Government also needs to control researches related to this subject. If government do not have limitation of researches of nuclear weapons, everybody or organizations could research, produce and use nuclear weapons include terrorism. The result will be horrible.

In a nutshell, government should distinguish what kinds of scientific research should encourage and what need to be banned or restricted.