united-states medical research
Is/Was funding or conducting gain of function research illegal?
<p>I have seen a lot of claims made about &quot;gain of function&quot; research in regards to corona viruses, one of them being that it is or was &quot;illegal&quot;. I wondered whether or not this claim was true at the time that some entities (NIH, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, other government organizations, etc.) were funding and/or conducting gain of function research themselves.</p>
<p>It seems the NIH did place a moratorium on funding gain of function research starting in October 2014 and rescinded it in December of 2017. (<a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/nih-lifts-3-year-ban-funding-risky-virus-studies" rel="noreferrer">Source</a>)</p>
<p>I found <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/3012" rel="noreferrer">Senate Bill S.3012</a> that was introduced by Sen. Marshall in October 2021, but a) it is not law, just a bill, and b) cannot be used to ex post facto criminalize behavior that had already been committed (US Constitution, Article 1, Section 9, Clause 3).</p>
<p><strong>Questions</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Was funding &quot;gain of function&quot; research by government institutions ever illegal? If so, starting when?</li>
<li>Was conducting &quot;gain of function&quot; research by government institutions ever illegal? If so, starting when?</li>
</ul>
<p>I have not seen this question asked here before, a quick search I was able to find the following question but it doesn't delve into whether either conducting this research or funding it was or is now illegal.</p>
<p><a href="https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/77953/what-is-the-status-of-rand-pauls-criminal-referral-to-the-doj-relating-to-alleg">What is the status of Rand Paul's criminal referral to the DOJ relating to allegations levied against Dr. Anthony Fauci?</a></p>

<p>Senate Amendment 2003 was an amendment to an amendment to a bill which did not pass: it would have permanently ban all funding of gain-of-function research in China. Senate Bill S.3012 likewise did not become law. Furthermore, economically bans gain-of-function, and does not criminalize anything. It says &quot;Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no research grants supported by Federal funds may be awarded to institutions of higher education, or other research institutes, that are conducting gain-of-function research&quot;, meaning a total shut-off of federal research money to an institute that engages in such research. But it didn't happen, so it is still legal.</p>
