"Have you ever thought of the consequences of sterilizing every mammal on earth, and perhaps the birds and other animals too?" he asked. "This FS virus is powerful. If we start another pandemic it could get away from us. It might increase in power still more, though God knows it's bad enough. And obviously we can't inoculate every animal of all the species it may affect even when we find the vaccine to counteract it. We'd have to build another Noah's Ark and take it out in the middle of the ocean to be sure we could save them from extinction."
"We have a Noah's Ark now," I suggested. "We could isolate the Americans from Asia, Europe and Africa. Australia and New Zealand could do the same. We are doing it for the measlepox right now until there is enough vaccine to go around."
"That's true, although it wouldn't be difficult for the Russians to smuggle the virus ashore. They might do it if they thought they were licked. The dying soldier often tries to drag his enemy down with him."
"But aside from all that," he continued, "I still don't like it. Men have wiped out some of the most beautiful and interesting creatures of this earth. The passenger pigeon is gone. The bison is a curiosity in National Parks. The trumpeter swan is in danger and the California condor is on its last lap. I don't believe this world was created just so man could ruin it, and I don't want to go down in history as the most ruthless destroyer of all time. Oh, I know I'll be expected to give this discovery to our politicians. The discoverers of the atomic bomb and H-bomb did just that and their consciences have bothered them ever since. There is a greater loyalty in this world than loyalty to one's country ... it is loyalty to the human race. I believe in the Golden Rule. Call it Christian logic if you wish. We have already disturbed the balance of Creation in this world as a cancer disturbs the human body, and, like a cancer, when we destroy too much of the world we too may die."
"But the Russians don't live and let live," I objected. "Are you willing to let them take over the world and perpetuate communist doctrines?"
"It's a thought I do not like," he said very quietly, "but all through history "isms" have grown and then have died as time passed. This "ism" too could pass. Perhaps Gandhi was right. Passive resistance won in India and although the Reds are much more cruel than the British ever were, even they can't go too far. Remember the East German revolt and the Georgian riots after the denunciation of Stalin? Remember the horrors of Hungary? Our agents report increasing unrest in Russia itself. The people are sick of repression and terror. Demands for moderation are even printed in their papers. The Far Left is slowly moving back to the middle of the road. We should go to meet it instead of edging farther and farther to the Right, into the nightmare world of Hitler and Mussolini."
"Then what are we to do? Do you want to destroy the virus?"
"I don't know. After all, you and Pat are involved in this and may not agree."
"I know the politicians would want us to give them the information," I said. "I'll never forget in the States during the row over the H-bomb and Oppenheimer, how some pompous ass of a senator got up and said he thought scientists should stick to science and leave decisions of ethics and national policy to those who knew best—meaning himself and those like him. Democracy is a wonderful thing but I can't see how getting elected makes any man a sage. I honestly doubt if the ordinary politician is as competent to judge the effects of a scientific discovery as the scientists themselves are."