Logo

The President of the Republic addressed an Estonian-Norwegian genetics seminar

21.10.2021 | 06:13

The President of the Republic today attended an Estonian-Norwegian genetics seminar at Gaustad Institute. In his closing words to the seminar, President Arnold Rüütel among other things voiced his concern over a potential conflict between gene technology and ethics. "The international community has been very tentative vis-à-vis attempts to clone a human being. It is clear that the rapid development of life sciences has brought the mankind face to face with a fatal issue. The discovery of nuclear reaction, the first atomic bomb and its use in World War II delivered a similar ethical problem," the President said.

The President in his address observed that the achievements in genomics and biotechnology were indispensable in improving the quality of human life. "However, at one point we could face a choice that will threaten the life itself, the life people think they are masters of. Therefore, each achievement in the research world involves responsibility of scientists for its proper use. I do believe that both the Estonian and the Norwegian genome researchers will make their valuable contributions not only to the development of life sciences in the world but also to the handling of ethical problems," the President of the Republic said.


Press Service of the Office of the President
Kadriorg, April 10, 2002
Arnold Rüütel Press release
open graph image