Bioethicist Malcolm Dando has published a disturbing and well-researched editorial in this week's Nature magazine, about how biological research is being weaponized - and how poorly biologists understand the military implications of their work. Here's what he has to say.
Dando writes, in part:
At the 4th European Symposium on Non-Lethal Weapons in 2007, researchers from the Institute of Experimental Medicine and Charles University in Prague described the effects on macaque monkeys of combinations of drugs that produce a rapid loss of aggressive behaviour. They argued that the drugs could be "used to pacify aggressive people during ... terrorist attacks". The same researchers have also investigated methods of aerosol delivery to human volunteers.
Those who support the development of incapacitating agents often argue that using them in conflict situations stops people being killed. Historical evidence suggests otherwise. At the Nord-Ost siege, for instance, terrorists exposed to the fentanyl mixture were shot dead rather than arrested. Likewise, in Vietnam, the US military used vast quantities of CS gas - a 'non-lethal' riot-control agent - to increase the effectiveness of conventional weapons by flushing the Viet Cong out of their hiding places.
Blind to misuseThe lack of engagement with this issue among life scientists in general is alarming. Some companies are already marketing oxytocin on the back of studies showing that a nasal squirt of the hormone increases trust in humans. Even though the effectiveness of commercial sprays is doubtful, such research opens up the possibility of a drug that could be used to manipulate people's emotions in a military context. Discussions with more than 2,000 practising life scientists in 13 countries over the past few years have taught me that few have considered such possible uses of their work.
It's worth reading Dando's entire editorial - it's full of interesting facts about the use of biological weapons, as well as details about biologists who are currently complicit in weaponizing their neuroscience discoveries. It's one thing to consciously choose to create biological weapons, but Dando points out that one of the worst problems is scientists who never contemplate the military implications of their work. That's why his discussion above about oxytocin is so disturbing - these researchers never think about how their discoveries, in the wrong hands, might be used for torture, interrogation, or worse.
Biologists Napping While Work Militarized via Nature
Image by J. Field
