Address At The Judicial Colloquium On Science, Law And Ethics At National Judicial Academy, Bhopal
(Through Video Conference) From New Delhi : 19-02-2005
Dynamics of Society is the Function of Science, Law and Ethics
I am delighted to participate in the Judicial Colloquium on Science, Law and Ethics organized by National Judicial Academy, Bhopal. I greet the Hon?ble Chief Justice of India, Hon?ble Justices of Supreme Court and High Courts, distinguished legal personalities, the Director of the National Judicial Academy, scientists, technologists and other participants. During the last two hundred years there has been considerable advancement in science and technology. Certain things which were considered possible in science has not happened. Whereas certain other things not considered possible have become a reality. Considering the rapidity of these developments and their impact on the mankind and society there is an urgent need to have a re-look at the system in an integrated way on science, law and ethics. As said by a legal luminary, it would be tragic if the laws and ethics are so petrified and are unable to respond to the unending challenge of evolutionary and revolutionary changes in our society. In that respect this judicial colloquium on science, law and ethics is a very important event which provides an opportunity for scientists, technologists and legal experts to work together and draw a roadmap for the changes which are needed in our legal system in an integrated way taking into technological progress and ethics to have a balanced social system.
Multi Dimensions of Technology
Technology has multiple dimensions. Geopolitics converts the technology to suit a particular nation?s policy. The same policy will lead to economic prosperity and capability for national security. For example, the developments in chemical engineering brought fertilizers for higher yield of crops while the same science led to chemical weapons. Likewise, rocket technology developed for atmospheric research helped in launching satellites for remote sensing and communication applications which are vital for the economic development. The same technology led to development of missiles with specific defence needs that provide security for the nation.
The aviation technology development has led to fighter and bomber aircraft, and the same technology will lead to passenger jet and also help operations requiring quick reach of support to people affected by disasters. When nuclear science was born in India in 1950s, in two decades India got nuclear medicine, nuclear irradiation for preservation and multiplication of improved varieties of agricultural products, nuclear power and much later weapons. Similarly in the case of science of virology, the same science can be used for anti virus vaccines and also some other nations may use the same science for generating virus for biological warfare. It is essential as in the case of Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), a treaty has to be in place for the elimination of biological weapons. It is essential for our legal experts to work with the world body like the United Nations to bring into force a Biological Weapon Treaty in a time bound manner to prevent some of the irresponsible groups of nations deploying the virus for biological terrorism. We should note that the existence of biological weapons is always a danger to humanity.
Life Sciences and Laws
As you are aware new technologies are arising due to nano-technology, bio-technology and information technology. These technologies are also converging as a triad bio-nano-info leading to a nano robots. Nano robots when they are injected on a patient, my expert friends say, it will do deliver the treatment exclusively in the diseased area and then the nano-robot gets digested as it is DNA based. Also in the medical area, we are finding increasing application of stem-cells as a curative process. In this area ethics are involved in the use of embryonic cells which have been found to be extremely efficient in curing certain diseases. This issue needs a careful study by legal, social organisations and medical community jointly for enacting appropriate law based on our Indian ethos.
The human being of today is the result of millions years of genetic engineering and the evolution particularly human minds, hence I believe human cloning should not be done. However, human cloning is being aggressively researched by many countries. When the cloned human beings increase in number in a few decades then the relationship of families of cloned persons to the natural persons will need to be evolved reflecting a change in the legal way of doing things including human dynamics. A debate in this topic is essential among the scientific and the legal community.
However, cloning of human organs for repair of organs such as eye, liver, kidney and heart etc. is an important requirement and also stem cell research must be progressed. Recently, I came across an article in which the stem-cells recovered from the umbilical cord of a recently delivered mother are found to be a rich source of stem cells. This area is a fertile research ground for stem cell research community and a number of umbilical cord stem cell banks which will emerge in the country. Legal and scientific community should be prepared for regulating this situation. Also there is a need to have a re-look at the Indian Human Organ Transplant Act of 1994 to make it donor friendly and more importantly patient friendly to help those who are in dire need. In this connection, here, I would like to mention an experience of an Indian scientist who was waiting for a British liver in UK where as per law, the priority for transplantation has to be given to the native citizen first.
Human genome project - ethical issues
Human genome project has led to the mapping of gene sequence of the human population across the globe. This will be the starting point for many overlapping discoveries of bio-medical innovations for many decades to come. The function of each of the 40,000 genes indeed will lead to the understanding of every aspect of our life. Proteomic research in characterization of genes is taking shape. It may even lead to tailor-made medical treatment to suit the person?s genetic make up diminishing the problem of unwanted drug side effects. In our traditional holistic healing system, the same medicine is not given to two different individuals having same disease. Custom built medicine is required looking at the Prakriti of the individual Further discovery, may even lead to fine tuning of human evolution. But one of the big concerns is the legal ownership of the human genome. The conflict has to be resolved nationally and internationally. The typical questions which come to our mind are the following: Who is the owner of the results of the human genome projects and the results of the proteomics research? Who should have access to personal genetic information, and how will it be used? Who owns and controls genetic information? How will genetic tests be evaluated and regulated for accuracy, reliability, and utility? Should parents have the right to have their minor children tested for adult-onset diseases? Are genetic tests reliable and interpretable by the medical community? How do we as a society balance current scientific limitations and social risk with long-term benefits? The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are devoting 3% to 5% of their annual Human Genome Project (HGP) budgets toward studying the ethical, legal, and social issues (ELSI) surrounding availability of genetic information. This represents the world's largest bioethics program, which has become a model for ELSI programs around the world. A national programme on the proteomics of the Indian population should be initiated with the multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary participation as a consortium. This programme will lead to Pharma research and wealth generation. At the same time bio-ethical legal and social issues should be studied as a part of this programme. I would suggest this colloquium to discuss these issues and make appropriate suggestions in this regard.
Space Law
As it is known, all the communication satellites whether it is a civil or military have to be placed in the geo-synchronous orbit. International Telecommunication Union allots the slot in this orbit for all the users. In the geo-synchronous orbit there are certain strategic slots from which you can radiate to most part of the planet all the time. That provides additional wealth generation capability to certain users. Most of these slots have been occupied by the developed world. Of course India has got some slot for INSAT series. It is essential for Indian legal community to study the laws and bye-laws of the existing laws and safeguard our interests.
Similarly the remote sensing satellites are put for reconnaissance as well as resource mapping in the Polar orbit. In addition there are large numbers of small satellites in the near earth orbit. In another two decades huge solar powered satellites (few kms in radius) will occupy the geo-synchronous orbit.
Particularly in times of conflict blocks of countries waging the war may create economic damage by switching off the transponders radiating to the enemy country. Their reconnaissance satellite could also be made ineffective electronically. An in-depth analysis is required to simulate and understand the probable situation and work out adequate legal safeguards to protect our national interest.
Cyber Law
We have cyber laws in place which has been approved by the Parliament. It is another area where many advances are continuously taking place at a fast pace. Hence the cyber laws need constant updating. I would like to cite a few examples.
In this context, India's cyber laws need to look at the fact that now-a-days nations are electronically connected, with all its economic assets, defense and national security establishments will be the target for cyber attacks during a conflict. In such a situation, a country can be defeated even without a missile or aircraft attack just through intelligent cyber war.
Hence it is essential to generate a simulation model of the connected economic and defense security system as a cyber / electronic network. This will reveal the need for the evolution of a new policy with redundancy and restriction of external connectivity and external partnership of certain vital establishments.
Since our financial system is and will be connected to world economic institutions, we have to implement a robust encryption system for all our transactions through a national encryption policy. In addition cyber laws have also to be derived based on the Information Security standards.
However when a block of countries wage a war against another block, relevance and validity of these standards has to be reviewed leading to the evolution of a new standard. In the globalized economy we have to strike a sound balance between protection of national interest and the economics of international partnerships.
Sea Law
India has a Sea Law. But the Sea has now become multi-dimensional. India's marine wealth, transportation to and fro in the national international waters and territorial regions need an integrated look.
Sea has a wealth of marine life and inert products. It is necessary to protect deep sea oil, gas and mineral reserves apart from connecting sea bed resources. A legal and technical review is required to understand whether our national interests above the sea, on the sea and under the sea are fully protected.
Also, India is signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) which was enacted in 1994. This has resulted in the addition of 2 million square kilometers of sea area to our national jurisdiction in the form of exclusive economic zone with full rights for economic exploitation. There is a need to frame rules for Governance and Regulations of the development activities in the deep sea and maritime zones of India.
Restrictive laws by developed countries
Many developed countries have made laws to restrict or deny export of certain class of state-of-the-art goods and technologies, in selective manner, to developing countries even while making international laws which make it mandatory for the developing countries to open their markets to be accessed by foreign entities with very little restrictions. India has successfully faced such technology denial measures adopted by certain countries. When our laboratories needed certain type of alloy steel or super computers to develop indigenous systems, certain countries imposed ban on export of such alloy steel or computers to India. As soon as we succeeded in the development of that particular alloy steel or high performance computers, the ban on export of that steel or supercomputers was lifted. But such an unbalanced world order is something on which our legal experts may have to think, while framing our commitments to international treaties.
The MTCR (Missile Technology Control Regime) and NNPT (Non-nuclear proliferation Treaty) these are all national laws mostly driven by a few nations to avoid the proliferation of missiles and nuclear technology. But, inspite of these laws, the proliferation has taken place in different ways as most of you all know. Only in India, we have a clean record that both in missile area and nuclear technology there is no proliferation. It is very important to study and the legal experts should make a point while participating in international forums.
Legal community must also play the balancing role so that our technological growth can continue to be beneficial to our people and nation, free from undue interferences or unfair practices by any party with vested interests, domestic or foreign. Industrially developed countries are trying to make laws and treaties to protect and promote their own national interests and priorities, instead of working for win-win partnerships. India should work for win-win situation even in business and trade with ethics.
Moon - Mars Exploration
As you all are aware number of experiments are taking place in the Antartica region. This region is rich in oil and minerals but cannot be allowed to be exploited by any nation for economic purposes. This has been realized by various countries and a well formulated ground rules for operation in Antartica has been formulated in the form of an Antartica treaty of which India is also a signatory.
With the depletion of resources in the planet Earth there is an urge from different countries to go in for exploration on the Moon and in the Mars. There are possibilities for lunar mining including helium, lunar manufacturing and solar energy harvesting. Similar missions can also be planned in the Mars. While embarking on such missions what should be the ground rule followed by different countries. Since these issues are staring at us I thought of mentioning this to the scientific and the legal experts who are assembled here to debate on the topic science, law and ethics.
Conclusion
India was ruled by many Kings for thousands of years. Every ruler has left a set of laws. Similarly, there were many religions practiced in India and these religions also had their own set of laws. While dealing with cases pertaining to people of certain religion, our judiciary had always accepted their religious laws while pronouncing judgments on personal matters. Latest ruler was the British who ruled us for over two hundred years and gave us the rule of law based on their political, religious and legal experiences. We have been following this for many decades now. Presently, India is going through a phenomenon of knowledge society influencing the information society, the industrial society and the agricultural society through innovation and value addition. Finally, by the year 2020, India will become an economically developed nation. Economically developed status alone has not brought happy societal life in real sense in many countries. That means India while working on mission mode for economic development should also to build the values based on our civilizational heritage in the evolution of our society. I believe this Judicial Colloquium on Science, Law and Ethics is the right forum to discuss this great mission of evolving a legal system in the various phases of development of India leading to a happy, prosperous and safe India.
My best wishes to all of you in your mission of integrated analysis of the three vital areas of science, law and ethics.
May God bless you.
Question and Answer Session
Q.1.a. How can we transfer the benefit of science and technology to the poor living in the villages and the remote areas?
b. What role the courts can play in this area?
- Justice Sunil Ambwani, Allahabad High Court
Ans: a. Firstly, the technological inputs for farming should reach the farmers. This can be done by educational institutions and industries. I have seen a model in Punjab, where farmers of village Navapind have been given the technology and training in cotton cultivation leading to the per acre yield doubling in a years time. Similarly, the technology inputs must go to craftsmen, artisans and weavers. This has also happened in the case of Kanchipuram sarees and Kohlapuri chappals. Such examples are to be replicated in all parts of the country. Thirdly, a village knowledge centre should be created in each village wherein information about monsoon, plantation timings, availability of quality seeds and fertilizers, financing methodology, contract farming outlets and marketing information must be available, so that the farmer can increase the productivity and get the right price for his product. Also the technology can be provided for generating solar energy, bio-mass energy, bio-fuel like Jatropha plantation, low cost LED lighting can be provided to the villagers for improving their living conditions. Tele-education and telemedicine system can provide quality education and health care to the villagers and their doorsteps. This is specially necessary in remote areas like North-East, Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh where physical connectivity is slightly more difficult. The computer technologists have to come up with language independent software so that the villagers can benefit from the ICT revolution.
b. The courts can have a database of all the villages in their jurisdiction. The courts can endeavor to reach quick and speedy justice to the villagers through mobile court system. Village information centres should also be able to provide information pertaining to the cases to the villagers thereby saving time and money and reduced loss of working precious hours by the villagers.
Q.2 Computers and information technology have an important role in reducing the arrears in the courts as well as in helping in other areas. Broadly there are two kinds of software’s to do that. Proprietary and Open Source. Which one is better?
- Justice Yathindra Singh, Justice Allahabad High Court
Ans: First of all, I would like to clarify that the choice of proprietary vs. open software is driven by the usage and requirements of the user at the operating system level. Since, proprietary software is predominantly used at the client level; many users are familiar and comfortable with this. However, at the server level mature users choose the software as per their requirement. Open source operating system enables the development of language independent software’s and also building one’s own security algorithms to suit his requirement.
Indian IT industry is capable of providing a solution for the justice delivery system and its e Governance to the justice administration on top of any proprietary or open source systems. What is important here is justice delivery system should be inter-operable system built on top of open standards such as web services.
Q.3 In case in your opinion open source software is more secure, cheaper and better option or is as good as proprietary software, then
a. Why all courses in computer science at school level teach only proprietary software?
b. Why should almost all Govt office continue to have proprietary software
c. Why should govt. despite saying that they do not have any preference continue to favour proprietary software?
- Justice Yathindra Singh, Justice Allahabad High Court
Ans: This has already been answered above.
Q4. As India is emerging as a technological giant in the world scene, what would be your advice for humanizing science and technology so that they have a human face? How can we ensure that these technological developments contribute to a better quality life for the common man of our nation?
- Dr. Thomas Kalam, Director St. John’s Medical College, Bangalore
Ans. Science and technology alone cannot provide the human face. Science, technology, law and ethics in an integrated way have to humanize the system.