George Church, director of Harvard's Center for Medical Genetics and a synthetic biology policy wonk, feels that synthetic biologists ought to be under government surveillance -- and if they don't like it, they should pick another field.
The subject came up when I cracked a joke about a remark he'd made involving "bioterror" and "dirty bombs" setting off government surveillance alarms. Church, who takes very seriously the possibility that custom-built DNA and cellular components could be used for evil -- he helped design a plan, recently published in *Nature Biotechnology, *to establish oversight of all biological parts purchases -- said the government already listens to his phone conversations and reads his emails. Moreover, he thinks they ought to. From the interview:
When I asked if he worried that the watchers might make a mistake, or exploit their power, he replied:
Well, at least George has a sense of humor about it ... though I must admit that my metaphorical jaw dropped when I heard what he said. Every bone in my body is opposed to this idea: I believe that, unless there's an immediate, clear and present danger -- and that this assessment was vetted by some independent body -- there's no justification for allowing the government to see and hear everything you do, even if your expertise could be used to make deadly pathogens. And even if it wasn't a dearly held principle, it'd be a pragmatic matter: surveillance states are police states, lend themselves to abuses and exploitations that aren't easily fought.
That's how I feel, anyways. What about you?
