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

It is not uncommon for governments to place restrictions on scientific research and development—we’ve seen this one too many times. The prompt suggests governments place few, if any, restrictions on scientific research and development, and I strongly agree for two reasons.

Scientific research and development plays a vital role in the society we live in today. It positively impacts almost all aspects of human lives —health, education, transportation, safety, and so on. Through science research and development, we got Chemotherapy, a treatment which has proved effective for cancer, with some patients even going into remission. There are also treatments for AIDS and other life threatening diseases or viruses, thanks to scientific research. In the area of transportation, this research field has not only made it possible for us to commute conveniently, but to do so without polluting the environment through the use of green energy to power our vehicles––thereby making the ecosystem cleaner and safer for humans, animals, and plants. Hence, it will be imprudent to place a significant restriction on science research and development.

Without a doubt, scientific research and development is crucial to the growth of every nation. While it is not advisable to place a significant restriction on science research and development, there should be some sorts of checks and limitations put in place. This is because not all scientific research are innocuous to humankind, some are deleterious; for instance, the development of nuclear weapons. Imagine if there was no check on this, just any scientist can decide to make nuclear weapons in their backyard and sell to terrorists. While nuclear weapons may be advantageous during wars (for all is fair in love and war), governments must limit the development and use of such weapons to war or military use alone to safeguard its citizens, and those of other countries, from the abuse of such technology.

Some may argue that scientific research and development does more harm than good, and therefore governments should place heavy restrictions on them. I strongly disagree with this. Scientific research does a lot more good than harm for some reasons I have mentioned above, and should therefore only restricted minimally—to counter its negative use or abuse. With these restrictions in place, the society only gets to enjoy from a cornucopia of benefits scientific research and development has to offer.