Evolution of the planetary protection policy: conflict of science and jurisprudence?

Fonte: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=MImg&_imagekey=B6V3S-4C82B4X-2-...
Acesso em: 10 nov. 2009.

The policy of protecting pristine celestial environments is accepted with virtual unanimity, and has been incorporated into
positive international law. Originally phrased by the scientific community in terms of planetary quarantine requirements, the implementation
of the strictures of planetary protection have been drastically relaxed over the years for most bodies within the solar
system, which now are deemed to be of little or no biological or chemical interest in regard to the search for the origins of life.
However, the jurisprudential considerations which underlie the planetary protection policy do not necessarily recognize the same
scientific distinctions and assumptions which have provided the rationalization for the reduced application of active planetary
protection mechanisms. This paper examines the potential for conflict between the scientific and jurisprudential considerations of
planetary protection.

2002 Sterns and Tennen. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of COSPAR. All rights reserved.