I'd encourage you to read book 3 of CS Lewis' Space Trilogy "That Hideous Strength" as a counter to Dan Brown's book.
I would also like to think that we(the human race) have the ability to counter the Malthusian over-population question.
Therefore those questions you rise are extremely important, but it should be pressed that the government, with the assistance of ethics professionals and philosophers, should contemplate this issues - draw guidelines and then force them on the scientific world.
(emphasis mine on your quote)
I'd rather see the scientists self-police their actions and research than have guidelines forced on them by government. Who knows, in a decentralized scientific research community, one that wouldn't "depend" on government for funding, maybe that would be possible, but I don't believe that adding more regulations and laws is the ultimate answer.
You bring up important points. Unfortunately, I see technology advancing faster than the ability to keep up with it ethically.
SDG
Thanks for the tip! I will try to read them when I have some time :)
Really, if you get the time try to. The trilogy does not have to be read in order, but it is the last one that would be most pertinent to the questions raised. Good luck in you and your wife's studies.
I'm a semi-retired pharmacist and I would have loved to go into research, but I knew the ability to do hard research (research for knowledge sake) would be tough to do without doing a lot of butt-kissing.
SDG
So you know how hard it is as a med student to find time for book reading :) but I will download it to my kindle if it's available for kindle and will keep it in my to do list!