DualUse Dilemmas and National Regulations

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Dual-Use Dilemmas and National Regulations

• Michael J. Selgelid
• Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Applied
  Philosophy and Public Ethics
• The Australian National University
• michael.selgelid_at_anu.edu.au
• http//www.cappe.edu.au/staff/michael-selgelid.htm

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Multiple uses of dual use

• Dual Use has multiple meanings
• Civilian and military use (two birds, one stone)
• Good and bad use, where bad use involves weapons
  (of mass destruction).

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CIA Our Darker Bioweapons Future

• A panel of life sciences experts convened by
  the National Academy of Sciences concluded that
  advances in biotechnology ... have the potential
  to create a much more dangerous biological
  warfare (BW) threat. The panel noted that the
  effects of some of these engineered biological
  agents could be worse than any disease known to
  man.

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Levels of Governance

• Individual Scientists
• Educational and Research Institutions
• Scientific communities and/or organisations
• Science publishers
• National governments
• International (governance) bodies

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Dual Use Pipeline

• What research gets done
• Dissemination of research findings (i.e.,
  knowledge)
• Production and dissemination of dual use
  materials/technology
• Use of (discovered/disseminated) dual use
  knowledge/materials/technology

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The Fink Report

• US NRC recommendation (r/e dissemination of
  information)
• Voluntary self-governance of scientific community

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Governmental Control?

• Security Community/Govt
• Governmental interference would stall important
  areas of research
• Likely biased towards promotion of security?
• Poor judges of scientific importance?
• Slippery slope threat to civil liberties and
  freedom of speech

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Self-Governance?

• Scientists/editors
• Conflicts of interest?
• Biased towards promotion of med/science?
• Not security experts
• Systematically denied information essential to
  risk assessment
• Risk of mousepox study depends on
  classified information
• Cannot rely on self-governance, top-down
  regulation is needed.

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Wanted

• Balance between promotion of science and
  security.
• Need
• Decision-making authority embodying both science
  and security values (without being biased towards
  either)
• Decision-making authority embodying sufficient
  science and security expertise

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Who should govern?

• An independent regulatory authority?
• (at national level)
• But there is need for international solution.

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Bioethics on Genetics

• Environmental Dangers of Recombinant DNA
• Genetic Testing
• Discrimination
• Selective Reproduction/Eugenics
• Cloning and Stem Cell Research
• DNA Fingerprinting
• Patenting
• ? Not biological weapons

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Role of Ethics

• Informing policy debate and regulations
  development
• Education of scientists
• About BTWC
• About dual use
• Role in oversight/review process
• ? draw from relevant areas of
  ethico-philosophical discourse
• ? note precedents r/e clinical research ethics