Boston Weighs a Ban on Biodefense Studies

摘要

Boston―A deeply divided city council has asked for legal advice on whether it can ban scientific research it deems dangerous to the community. The target is a $178 million biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) facility funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to be built by Boston University (BU) near the city center. Even lab opponents say they are unlikely to win an outright ban, but a stormy 5-hour hearing on 20 April demonstrated that scientists disagree sharply over the facility's value, community activists are outraged, and BU is on the defensive. NIH chose the university in October as one of two private sites for the high-security labs, which will conduct research into infectious agents―including those which might be used by terrorists. The other, in Galveston, Texas, has encountered far less opposition.