Governments should place few, if any, restrictions on scientific research and development.

Science has palyed a vital role in the progress of mankind from the early caveman days to the modern world of nation states. Science has been instrumnetal in shaping the world as we see it today. Mankind gradually progressed from the caveman stage with the invention of fire, settlements developed as man discovered harvest, transport started with the invention of wheel and mankind never looked back. In the world of today,the most poerful nations are most scientifically advanced too. Thus we can say that scientific development is the key to the development of man. However, like every other thing, scientific development should also progress in a regulated manner otherwise it can lead to not only ethical and social perils but material destruction as well. Hence, governments should place reasonable restrictions on scientific research and development.

If scientific development were to develop without any restriction by the governments, the first problem that comes to mind is the issue of test subjects. Human test subjects are a valuable and sought after commodity in research of various types. Scientific developments especially in the field of medicine and health care can be significantly accelerated if a regular supply of human test subjects is present. The success of any new drug or medical procedure can be easily verified if it can be directly tested on humans during its research phase. Same is also true about genetic engineering research. If genetic experiments could be carried out on humans by introducing mutations human genome could easily be decoded and genetic changes could be studied. However, such research could be harmful to the test subjects as there are unknown side affects of any new medical drug or procedure and genetic mutation is generally harmful to any organism. An argument can be made in favour of such harmful experimentation that it is acceptable to sacrifice a few for the betterment of mankind as a whole.

Indeed such practices have been carried out in the past. Axis powers Germany and Japan were carrying out harmful experiments on prisoners of war, which resulted in cruel deaths of many of such condemned people. In USA,a number of black prisoners were allowed to die painful deaths to find a cure for syphilis. Even today, sporadic cases of such harmful experimentation being carried out on people either forcefully or without their knowledge, are reported.In the world of today which has enduerd the calamities of two World Wars, such barbaric practices cannot be practised.yet this is a direct outcome of unregulated scientific development.

Another aspect of such unregulated scientific development is harm to the environment. Today we see the development of many fast automobiles and aircrafts.Most of these vehicles are still dependent on fossil fuel as a result contribute to environmental pollution.Scientific development which has also fostered industrial revolution is also resposble for removal of forest cover and global warming. Newer weapons of mass destruction like nuclear as well as biological weapon pose a threat to environment in one way or the other.

Summing up,governments should place reasonable restrictions on scientific developments. However such restrictions should be placed only upon those aspects of scientific development which threaten the moral and ethical virtues of humanity or pose a threat to nature of earth. However restrictions based on religious dogmas and superstitions, like the Catholic Church did on Galielio, should be stricly refrained from.