Maybe scientists should question what precisely their work is going to be used for? like "hey boss why are we making house-sized predators? i'm not sure i want to do that, i'd rather start with small herbivores that can't hurt anyone".

"i was just following orders" is famously called the nuremburg defense, and the world didn't really like the nazi officers who pleaded that to charges of gassing people..

An engineer working on the construction of a building that's obviously going to collapse can't just say "oh well i'm just a worker, when the building collapses and kills 30 people that's the owner's fault", they have to refuse to continue work until the designs have been fixed or they are criminally negligent