Petition Ban “Gain of Function” research on viruses and bacteria in the UK

Gain-of-function research seeks to create new or augmented viruses and bacteria through genetic manipulation. Should such chimera viruses or bacteria escape, the consequences could be severe. Due to the potential risk, this research should be banned.

More details

Due to the risks of this type of biological research, the potentially dire consequences for public health should altered viruses or bacteria escape from a lab, and the potential for weaponisation should the research fall into the wrong hands, this type of research should not be done. Any potential benefits of such research are far outweighed by the risks.
This petition asks the Government to pass legislation to ban all such research in the UK, and to commit to lobbying for a world-wide ban.

This petition is closed This petition ran for 6 months

106 signatures

Show on a map

10,000

Date closed 6 October 2021
Get petition data (json format)

About petition data

The data shows the number of people who have signed the petition by country as well as in the constituency of each Member of Parliament. This data is available for all petitions on the site. It is not a list of people who have signed the petition. The only name that is shared on the site is that of the petition creator.