Scientific advances over the past several decades have accelerated the ability to engineer
existing organisms and to potentially create novel ones not found in nature. Synthetic
biology, which collectively refers to concepts, approaches, and tools that enable the
modification or creation of biological organisms, is being pursued overwhelmingly for
beneficial purposes ranging from reducing the burden of disease to improving agricultural
yields to remediating pollution. Although the contributions synthetic biology can make in …

" There have been, and are now, certain foreign nations... which convict individuals with
testimony obtained by police organizations possessed of unrestrained power to seize
persons... hold them in secret custody and wring from them confessions by physical or
mental torture. So long as the Constitution remains the basic law of this Republic, America
will not have that kind of government." 1