Cautious vs. Ridiculous

Is there a line between being cautious about something and being flat-out unreasonable? There have been many different topics over the years that have explored this line. One of the most recent situations with genetic engineering. Many people, like Chet Raymo, argue that genetic engineering is bound to be a disaster and "hemmed with peril", and he has good reason. The discovery of radium, for example, started out as an amazing discovery and everyone used it. However, it turned out to be fatal to many people and ended up a catastrophe.

But that was 30 years ago. We now have many more regulations on things such as new drugs and biotechnologies. Before something new is allowed to be sold on the market, they pass multiple clinical trials first. If a new technology is invented that can help prevent cancer, it won't immediately be used by the whole nation before it has been determined that it is safe. Or at least the risks of using it will be made completely known to the public, like it is with vape nowadays. Although vaping is definitely not healthy, the dangers of doing it is known, so it is up to each individual to decide if they want to do it or not. Nevertheless, there are definitely less unknown dangers that dwell in new medical products. Also, radium is used in some treatments to actually cure cancer, so perhaps the "disaster" that struck 30 years ago isn't even as bad as Raymo makes it out to be.

Being cautious is always good, but there is a point where being too cautious only hurts the furthering of society.