NationStates Jolt Archive

I'm not in the UN and I don't generally write proposals, but I'd like to suggest a resolution banning the use of the precautionary principle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precautionary_principle) by governments to limit scientific research. This would save a significant amount of cash and greatly reduce the time for new scientific developments to reach useful status.

It would most likely violate Freedom of Scientific Research, which gives governments the right to ban any type of research.

Not neccesarily. This would be a ban on a way to limit research, not a ban on research itself.

We'd have to say no. In fact, we'd go further; we would strongly encourage nations to use the Precautionary Principle, on the grounds that the damage under consideration, once done, cannot be undone.

I'm going to point out that if the precautionary principle had been followed for all scientific research, we would today not have vaccines, penecillin, or aspirin. Or for that matter, mass production of insulin.