At an international workshop on Transgenic Animals and Food Production in Stockholm in May 1997 Peter Sandoe, a Danish philosopher, characterized the difference between Europe and the United States in attitudes toward biotechnology as a difference between “why?” and “why not?” To do so, of course, sins against the eleventh commandment, “Thou shalt not generalize,” but the distinction he draws is a concise way to highlight the differences in policymaking in matters of biotechnology.