Stewardship or Censorship: Balancing Biosecurity, the Public's Health, and the Benefits of Scientific Openness

Stewardship or Censorship: Balancing Biosecurity, the Public's Health, and the Benefits of Scientific Openness

This document discusses the conflict between open scientific communication and national security in the biosciences in order to contribute to the national dialogue on the costs and benefits of regulatory regimes.

2006

This document addresses the fact that tension between the biosciences community and the security community are unavoidable, and there is unlikely to be agreement between the two on the actual risk level of biological weapons. In order to arrive at a compromise, there needs to be strengthened channels of communication between the two and an international code of conduct to provide a shared ethos without necessarily adding legislation. Furthermore, the biosciences community needs to be open to considering the concerns of the security community in terms of what they research and publish, especially at the individual level.