These opportunities will not be confined within a super-secret
Manhattan Project, dedicated entirely to military ends. Unlike the
achievements in nuclear physics in the first half of this century,
today's progress in biology and genetics rushes forward to help
create more bountiful crops and healthier harvests, to cure hitherto
incurable illnesses, to improve and prolong human life. Such
discoveries cannot be locked up for national security reasons. And in
many instances only a thin line will separate the production of
agents that cure illnesses from those that can be employed to spread
disease and death. The knowledge and techniques for making biological
super-weapons will become dispersed among hospital laboratories,
agricultural research institutes, and peaceful factories everywhere.
Only an oppressive police state could assure total government control
over such novel tools for mass destruction. In a free and open
democracy, those who wish to destroy the political order that they
despise will inevitably find ways to acquire these tools.

What Should Be Done?

This grim prospect has no parallel in history. Will democracy have to
"murder itself" to protect the people? "Remember", wrote John Adams
on a gloomy day in 1814, "democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes."

Essay Types: Essay