Zusammenfassung

Despite the fact that Dual Use (DU) research and related ethical dilemmas are almost as old as modern science, the debate concerning Dual Use issues has been going on with increasing intensity during the first two decades of the new millennium. The anthrax terrorist attacks in 2001 and the experimental derivation of mammalian transmissible H5N1 influenza in 2012 posed as ominous milestones, reflecting the possibility of misuse of technological advances in biotechnology. New discussions among scientists, policy makers, and society are underway, in order to find new solutions to long-standing, acute concerns. In this chapter, we discuss the latest developments in the Dual Use debate, focusing on policy issues concerning the governance of publicly funded Dual Use research. Potential Dual Use concerns arise when a number of critical decisions must be made, for example, about controlling the balance between openness and confidentiality of research data, about regulating synergies between research for civilian and military applications, and about resolving the conundrum of who is to be held responsible: the individual scientist or the overarching legal framework. This chapter is based on an extensive survey of the relevant literature, including EU and US legal frameworks controlling Dual Use research, and the latest findings of an EU-funded study that has delivered a set of best practices for identifying and assessing Dual Use issues in technological research.

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76040-7_7-1