In our own hands

摘要

Biotechnology, like that valuable animal the scapegoat, is a beast destined, or chosen, to bear many burdens. But is this fate deserved? The perception — widespread in Europe — that biotechnology is something fundamentally new, like the discovery of electricity, or akin to black magic, is unfortunate. It has led to the assumption that there are technology-specific risks requiring ad hoc regulations and associated bureaucracies, and to consequent conflicts with sectoral regulations, as well as to international trade disputes. But not for the first time, perceptions, laws and the course of societal development maybe driven by delusion. It was, after all, the scientists themselves who in 1974 proposed and accepted a moratorium on certain experiments, and the following year held the widely publicized international conference at Asilomar in California to discuss the conjectural risks of recombinant DNA.