Biodefense Ethics Position

The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity has asked you to submit a paper that assesses the ethical considerations associated with research with your pathogen. Your paper will look at the risks and benefits of either a single research publication on your pathogen (e.g., the H1N1 gain of function controversy), or an ethical issue associated with your pathogen more generally (e.g., should any research be done with the smallpox virus?).

Steps to Completion –

1.     Research and identify recent publications on research with your pathogen

2.     Consider which of these poses ethical issues and select one publication. If you prefer, you can chose to assess a variety of work with your pathogen and discuss the ethical issues generally associated with working with your pathogen.

3.     Provide brief scientific and policy background on your pathogen and research being done with it: why the research is being done, how it fits into a broader effort (vaccine research, basic research, advanced development, etc.)