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Case for Discussion Dr. Roger Powers is the editor-in-chief of the Infectious Agent Sciences, a journal published by the North American Society of Infectious Diseases. He recently received a letter from Dr. William Ernst, the head of a laboratory outside of the United States. Dr. Ernst complains bitterly that his request for a bacterial strain described and published in the journal have been refused. This request has been made to Dr. Stanley Fields, an expert in the field of bacterial antibiotic resistance. The strain being requested by Dr. Ernst contains a novel combination of genetic elements making it resistant to most families of commonly used antibiotics. Dr. Fields, like many microbiologists, has been following world-wide developments about bioterrorism and the weaponizing of infectious agents. Fields knows the institution that employs Dr. Ernst was once engaged in biological warfare research during the Cold War era. Fields fears that the antibiotic resistance traits found in his strain could be put to harmful use by engineering them into disease-causing bioweapons, and this is his rationale for refusing to send a culture of it to Dr. Ernst. However, Dr. Ernst points out in his letter that the Instructions to Authors of Infectious Agent Sciences explicity states that any materials reported in the journal must be made available to interested researchers wishing to employ them in non-commercial uses. This policy is stated as a condition of publication in the journal. Dr. Ernst affirms this is in keeping with his request. Obviously, Dr. Rogers' uneasiness leaves him feeling quite differently. What should Dr. Powers do to resolve this problem? used with permission |
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