Don't 'play God': Mahathir
The government will set up an ethics committee to make sure scientists do not create "uncontrollable monsters" as the country develops its biotechnology industry, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said today.
Mahathir, opening a four-day biotechnology conference, said the development of new sciences such as the cloning of humans must be controlled.
"It seems that we can now produce any number of Einsteins and also numerous Hitlers.
"The ethical scientist may not want to do this but there will be crooked scientists working under crooked regimes who may flood the earth with uncontrollable monsters," he said.
"It is fine to produce specific organs for transplanting in human bodies but we should not try to play God and think of populating this earth with creatures which may destroy us in the end."
The government will set up an ethics committee to make sure scientists do not create "uncontrollable monsters" as the country develops its biotechnology industry, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said today.
Mahathir, opening a four-day biotechnology conference, said the development of new sciences such as the cloning of humans must be controlled.
"It seems that we can now produce any number of Einsteins and also numerous Hitlers.
"The ethical scientist may not want to do this but there will be crooked scientists working under crooked regimes who may flood the earth with uncontrollable monsters," he said.
"It is fine to produce specific organs for transplanting in human bodies but we should not try to play God and think of populating this earth with creatures which may destroy us in the end."
Biotech hub
Malaysia has identified biotechnology as a key pillar in its move towards becoming a knowledge-based economy.
It has outlined plans to develop a hub called BioValley Malaysia, envisioned as a catalyst and test-bed grouping researchers, industry workers and entrepreneurs in a biotechnology hub.
Mahathir told reporters later that the government would establish "an enforcement agency and an ethics committee" to ensure that biotech research is not misused.
BioValley, to be situated in Malaysia's high-tech Multimedia Super Corridor, will house three research institutions dealing in genomics, pharmaceuticals and agriculture, he said.
New patents
Environment Minister Law Hieng Ding said details of the committee would be issued later.
Law dismissed a suggestion that the move to monitor research could drive scientists to decamp to neighbouring Singapore, which has no such restrictions.
"That is more or less the guidelines, what are the dos and don'ts. It shows that we are more responsible," he said.
Earlier in his speech, Mahathir invited foreign scientists to tap the "large reservoir of assets" in Malaysia, which he said is one of 12 countries in the world with mega-diverse bio-resources including some 12,500 species of flowering plants.
"Our research and development has not resulted in many new patents being registered, much less new enterprises being launched... we need collaboration with foreign scientists and enterprises," he said.
