ABSTRACT
First of all, allow me to thank the organisers and congratulate them for the initiative to have this workshop. I really think it is extremely important that this dialogue is held and that understanding finally wins. If there are new scientific developments which the general public does not understand, does not accept, we really have a problem in our society. In history there are very many examples of this. I do not want to dramatise and talk about the period when the position of the planets in the solar system was a point of discussion. We have seen how the attitudes have evolved. You might think I am exaggerating, but I am afraid that fifty years from now people will look back at our period and feel that we lost a tremendous amount of time in scientific and technological development through the current delays due to the incomprehension of biotechnology. The very logical attitude of society is not to progress immediately because we do need to have this type of consensus.
