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TOPIC: ISSUE69 - "Government should place few, if any, restrictions on scientific research and development"
WORDS: 467          TIME: 0:45:00          DATE: 2007-2-28

Scientific research and development, which has changed our life in the past years, will still have significant affection nowadays and in the future. The speaker asserts that the government should place few restrictions on scientific research and development. And I agree with his idea, one need not have to go very far to see the truth of the statement.

First of all, we don't know the result of every research. Somebody says that the government should just support the scientific research which would be useful.
But actually, scientific research and development is different in many aspects with other things. One result might seem useless today, but would prove to be an important discovery later. For instance, Mendelian theory, which if the most important base of genetics, was thought to be nothing at first, people know the its importance after many years. Without it, we would not have even know anything about gene. So almost every research will have its value, government can't decide which is useful now.

Secondly, scientists will be more effective in doing the major which they are interested in. Many scientist do the science research just because the individual interests. And this is one of the most important power to help the development of science.  One of the most famous professor in our college of Chemistry once said (and I paraphrase), I do the research in the field of chemistry for more than twenty years because I like it and I can show my ability freely in the research. If the government just rule many restrictions on the research and development of science, many scientist would lose their passion. It will be tragic in science, maybe we can not the prosperous of development in science today. So the freedom of research is of great importance in science development.

However, our claim that government should place few restrictions does not mean that  government would do nothing on the scientific research and development. Government should control the general direction of the science development. It could fund the research which the country need most. The government also should pay attention to the research which would likely to be harmful to human beings or which would take some ethical problems. For example, if a evil scientist want to make a nuclear weapon to help the terrorist, the government should certainly forbidden it. Research like the cloning of humans, which would take moral crisis in society, is also should be restricted by government.

In sum, people are difficult to arrive at the same stand on this controversy issue. But what I discussed above would no doubt aware the complex of the problem. More and more people will come to realize that government should make freedom of the scientific research and development and set few restrictions if they are needed.