PHIL 7570
CASE STUDIES IN RESEARCH ETHICS

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This session serves as a cap-stone to the course. Issues raised in this session may change from semester to semester. Generally, the focus will be on the social responsibility of researchers. Do researchers have a special obligation to society as a whole? Are there certain types of resarch that should be "forbidden" because society may deem it inappropriate (e.g., human stem-cell research or sexuality research)? What role should scientists and scholars play in the public arena, when formulating public policy, etc.? These and other topics may be covered. If opportunity allows, guest speakers with national reputaions may be invited.

Required Readings

• Articles: (Read both articles for Thursday discussion. Ask yourself, should scientists be immune from public oversight in their research?)

  Forbidden Science. By Barry Yeoman. Discover, Vol. 25 No. 08, August 2004. What can studies of pornography, prostitutes, and seedy truck stops contribute to society? (If interested, also see a related article: Long After Kinsey, Only the Brave Study Sex. (pdf) By Benedict Carey. New York Times, November 9, 2004.)

  Scientific Autonomy and Public Oversight (pdf). By David Resnik. Episteme 2008. Argues that when scientific research collides with social values, science's "right to self-governance" becomes an issue. He provides an analysis for when and in what way public oversight might override scientific autonomy. This recent article is a good companion piece for the above articles on socially controversial research.

• Case Studies: Social Responsibility (pdf)

Other Articles and Links of Interest

• A More Social Science. By jeffrey Grainard. Article discusses Daniel Sarewitz, who wants researchers to serve society better by looking for beneficial results. Chronicle of Higher Education. November 18, 2005.

• Forbidden Knowledge. (pdf) By Joanna Kempner et al. Policy Forum: Ethics. Science 307, February 11, 2005. A discussion of the politization and social control of science.

• The Impact of Society on Science. By Sydney Brenner. Essays on Science and Society. Science 282, 20 November 1998; 1411 - 1412.

  Building Stairs into Slippery Slopes. (PDF) Interview of Arthur Caplan (Director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania) by Holger Breithaupt and Caroline Hadley. EMBO Reports, Vol. 6, 10, 2005; 8-12.

• Psychological Responses After Abortion. (pdf) By Nancy E. Adler et al. Science 248, 1990.

• Questioning Epidemiology: Objectivity, Advocacy, and Socially Responsible Science. By Nancy Krieger, American Journal of Public Health, August 1999, vol. 89, no. 8; 1151-1152.

• When Science is Not Enough: Fighting Genetic Disease in Brazil. (PDF) By Mayana Zatz. Essay, Global Voices of Science in Science 308, 1 April, 2005; 55-57.

• Matching Minds to Study Terror, Washington Post, Thursday, January 13, 2005; It's being called the Manhattan Project of counterterrorism: great minds coming together from across the insular disciplines of social science, united by national security, to attack a problem until it is solved.

• Power Point Slides for Prof. Carol Werner's presentation on Social Responsibility (ppt)