Scientists have only one responsibility: to put their knowledge in the public domain. This was the message from Prof Lewis Wolpert to a Dublin lecture audience last night.
Prof Wolpert, Professor of Anatomy and Developmental Biology at University College London Medical School, said that scientists should not have to make ethical decisions about their work. But, when publishing their research, they had a duty "to give some indication of how reliable the information is".
Prof Wolpert was speaking at the RDS Concert Hall in the first of the Irish Times/Royal Dublin Society "Science Today" lectures, in which he addressed the topic "Is Science Dangerous?"
He said the idea that knowledge was dangerous was "deeply embedded in our culture", adding that the general perception of scientists was that they were "obsessional, boring or dangerous".
However, he said, it was important to draw a distinction between science and technology. "Science is all about understanding; technology is all about making things. It is with technology that ethical issues arise." What people did with reliable scientific knowledge was another matter. For instance, the decision to build the nuclear bomb had been taken by politicians, not scientists.
Prof Wolpert said that scientists should only be asked to make ethical decisions as ordinary citizens. The idea of appointing any group of experts to take moral or ethical decisions for everyone was not desirable.
He also warned against excluding certain areas from research. "The moment you start censoring the sort of reliable knowledge you get, you start getting into trouble."
People needed to understand the often chance nature of scientific discovery and to realise that "all science goes against common sense".
On the issue of genetic engineering and cloning, he warned against the media's tendency "to titillate and excite and fright" rather than inform. This "genetic pornography" had raised unwarranted fears among the public.
People should bear in mind that the scientists who had created the cloned sheep known as "Dolly" had carried out 277 trials before their success. The idea of carrying out similar trials on humans, resulting in grossly-deformed babies, was "monstrous" and would not be considered by scientists.
Despite claims to the contrary, cloning threw up no new ethical issues. Part of the problem was ignorance about the nature and techniques of genetic engineering.
Prof Wolpert said it was worth recalling the hostility to vaccination in the last century. Only when the public had acquired sufficient understanding of vaccination had it become accepted as part of "common sense".
He maintained that there should also be a distinction between imminent dangers and possible or distant ones. "A knife is an imminent danger. Scientific knowledge is not."
Prof Wolpert said that people should remember that while scientists were blamed for such things as spoiling the environment it was only because of science that we knew of such risks as global warming and BSE.
