reasons for the destruction of smallpox

I have been asked as part of my assignment to state whether or not i agree with live stocks of the smallpox virus being retianed for research. I do not agree that the virus should be retained, and here is my argument..........

The remaining stocks of the smallpox (variola) virus should be destroyed. Moreover, the reasons for retaining the virus are political, rather than for the welfare of mankind. Hammond and Ching (2011) believe that those that are defending the retention of the smallpox virus are scientists from the US and Russia where the virus is being stored, meaning that the reasons for retaining the remaining stocks are biased as ‘’it is like asking a group of restaurant owners if eating out is a good thing’’ (Hammond and Ching, 2011, p. 2). Scientists have also carried out dangerous tests on monkeys as they were initially ’’ unable to provoke smallpox cases in monkeys with ‘’normal’’ doses of the pathogen, the American researchers finally got the monkeys to manifest the disease by inoculating them with huge doses of the variola’’ (Hammond and Ching, 2011, p. 4). This meant that the monkeys eventually died from smallpox. Such research on animals is highly unethical and unnecessary in this day and age and served no purpose, as the monkeys progressed immediately to advanced stages of smallpox, therefore, making it impossible to carry out tests on the early stages of the smallpox disease. To sum up, animal research is not only unnecessary, but also, does not correspond to human infection. What is more, a wider net should be cast to gain the opinion from other leading scientists in order for them to have their say to enable a fairer, unbiased opinion on whether or not the remaining smallpox stocks should be destroyed or retained for further research; and more importantly, to opine on whether there is a real threat from terrorists following the destruction of the smallpox virus.

 

Hammond, E. and Ching, L. (2011) Smallpox virus stocks at the 64^th WHA: Implementing the conclusions of the major review. Switzerland: Third World Network.