Team:Potsdam Bioware/SocialBrick/Science Meets Politics

Science Meets Politics

In this year we interviewed 6 Members from the German parliament (Bundestag) affiliating to two different parties, CDU and SPD and members of the squad for economy and environment of the Pirate party. Furthermore, we meet the German Minister of Education, Mrs. Schavan. In the following section we summarized the short interviews.

The Pirate Party Germany

Details to the Pirate Party Germany

The Pirate Party Germany is an alternative party which combines different political directions. The party demands direct democracy, transparency and freedom of information. That is why they are critical with copyright and patent law. Currently the party is not member of the German Bundestag but represented in some Landtagen (parliament of German constitutive federal states). We got the chance to meet the Berlin Squad for economy and environment on 6th September 2012. The Members of the Squad tried to answer our questions about Synthetic Biology. It has to be mentioned, that the given answers are not the opinion of the whole Pirate Party, only of the Berlin Squad for economy and environment.

Statements on Synthetic Biology

Primarily, we promote science and also demand the financial support of projects. Nevertheless, we see also the risks and potentially danger of Synthetic Biology. In the worst case we would abstain from gaining knowledge about a topic if there is danger associated with it. Nevertheless there is a great potential of Synthetic Biology for example to avoid animal experiments. However, we see the release of genetically modified organisms into the environment very critical. For example, we would not have supported the disposal of genetically modified bacteria to combat the Exxon Valdez catastrophe 1989. Two points are very important, because they are official positions of Pirate Party Germany. Firstly, we demand free access to information for society because we don´t see danger for the public safety. In our opinion, the withholding of information promotes illegal behavior. Therefore, we strictly refuse military research. That is the reason why we demand the support of public research. That is also a part of the second point: when we financially support companies the results have to be freely accessible for the public without any constraints. Finally we recommend a survey in any case of public interest.