Scott P. Layne and Michael H. Sommer

In the following viewpoint, written when Americans were debating military action against Iraq and its leader Saddam Hussein, Scott P. Layne and Michael H. Sommer raise the sobering possibility that biological weapons (which could possibly be used by Iraq in retaliation to U.S. military action) have the potential to infect and kill half the world’s population. Such a nightmare scenario must be taken seriously, they argue, given recent advances in bioengineering research. In addition to being deadly, biological weapons have the advantage of being much cheaper to produce than chemical and nuclear weapons. Scott P. Layne is an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of California- Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Public Health. Michael H. Sommer is a visiting scholar...