Doctor Has Suggested, Using Advanced

¶ … doctor has suggested, using advanced computers to create new types of organisms can be justified as the next step in medical exploration since it is based on research already completed by those who have gone before him.

"Sir Isaac Newton once acknowledged - If I have seen far, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. Most innovators stand on the shoulders of giants, and never more so than in the current revolution of high technologies, where almost all technical progress builds on a foundation provided by earlier innovators." (Scotchmer 1991-page 29).

Since the foundation for this type of research has already been accomplished and further research is ongoing as well, this essay will attempt to answer the question of whether continued research is viable and, possibly even more importantly, whether such research is ethical.

Many experts believe that the type of activity being espoused by the doctor should be curtailed and in some cases banned entirely. The doctor, on the other hand, believes that science and the betterment of human life will be enhanced by accomplishing such research and that it will lead to improved, as well as longevity of life.

This type of research, as accomplished with the help of advanced computer techniques and capabilities, should not be curtailed in any style since there is nothing inherently wrong in conducting this type of research. Much of the ballyhoo concerning such research is overblown and cynical since there truly aren't any victims to this type of crime.

Since all the doctor is attempting to do is manipulate the organisms he has created genetically through the use of computer power, and that such research is to be used for the betterment of mankind, how and why should the research be categorized as a crime?

An even better question would be why stop this research in the first place? One of the reasons why curtailing this type of research should be done would be if it was against the law, short-sighted that said law would be, or not. In an effort to stop ongoing research in this field of study from getting to "out of hand," laws banning this type of research may be created and then implemented. The result(s) of such a law, or laws, would be to force the doctor(s) conducting the research to go overseas to conduct the research where such laws would not be in effect.

At that point, what actions could be taken against the doctor in order to force him to stop conducting his research in a country that did not have such laws? Extreme measures such as fining him or the benefactors funding his research could be implemented, especially if such benefactors are companies or firms that conduct business in the United States. Other measures could be to freeze the doctor's assets which would effectively stop all research due to lack of funding.

Other actions could include working with those foreign countries to establish, create and enforce laws that would make it illegal to conduct research in those countries, especially if the researcher was a citizen of the United States.

"Much has been written on the increasingly international generation, transmission and diffusion of technologies, with the phenomenon having been given its own term -- techno-globalism -- and interpreted by some as displacing national systems of innovation and making redundant and futile any attempt by national governments to foster technological development domestically." (Archibugi 1993-page 121)

Fostering development domestically is not the only thing difficult in this increasingly global world, also difficult is the controlling of that development especially in regards to the type of research being conducted. It is probably worth the time and effort being put into safeguarding this type of research, but certainly curtailing the research entirely may be too difficult to accomplish.