Assignment:
Before getting started with this discussion activity, please review the Important Information About Discussions. The discussions in this class will center on unanswered questions that do not have a right or a wrong answer. It is your task to research the question from both sides and form your own fact-based opinion. The goal is not to convince others to side with you. Rather, the goal is to learn how to research a scientific issue, investigate the facts on both sides, and form your own defensible opinion.
The article Timeline: How Anthrax Terror Unfolded e explains that in 2001, 5 people were killed and 17 more were infected, but survived, an anthrax attack in the United States targeting news agencies and politicians. The deadly spores were delivered in anonymous letters - a modern version of a Trojan horse. The FBI concluded the perpetrator was an army biologist, Bruce E. Ivins (NPR, 2011, para 1, 27).
According to the Biological Weapons Convention At a Glance Fact Sheet, e the proliferation of bioweapons has been illegal since the early 1970s, with 180 countries having signed the Biological Weapons Convention. Countries who are missing from this list include Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Israel, Micronesia, South Sudan, and Tuvalu (Arms Control Association. 2018, para 1).
Take a Side
Should a government conduct defensive bioweapons research? If you think yes, what are the best case scenarios? If you think no, what are the worst case scenarios?