They would have loved to, but BU's proposed BSL4 lab got blocked back in the early 2000's because, well, they wanted to put it in the heart of Roxbury. And con

They would have loved to, but BU's proposed BSL4 lab got blocked back in the early 2000's because, well, they wanted to put it in the heart of Roxbury. And considering that they've had at least one or two leaks from their existing BSL3 facilities in Boston, that struck folks nearby as...well, not the best place to put a BSL4 (especially a handful of years after the Anthrax releases traced as originating from Ft. Dietrich in the wake of 9/11). There are things that you COULD do with scientific procedure that would absolutely have some beneficial results where the potential human cost is simply too high to ethically justify (for example, see: a ton of science performed under the Third Reich). Perhaps some day we can do some of this work in a safe manner off-planet (ideally, without even needing humans on board the platforms where the virii are being manipulated). We're not there yet, and ethicists need to be willing to step in to keep things in check.