Ethical
Dilemmas
Ethics in science is only a choice... ...not a restriction.
Ethics is a system of moral, principles of rules of conduct in respect to a particular class. Being unethical in science is a misconduct in science by manipulating a fake data or by experimenting on human beings and causing hardships to their lives. It can also be related to religion. For example, cloning, the Human Genome Project, human subjects in testing, and, stem cell research . How do we know about things that surround us?Science is a crucial type of knowledge that all human beings must acquire. It is an explanation and a way of knowing about the natural world finding answers to specific questions. Science triggers us in knowing everything about ourselves and about the time and space in which we evolved. The nature of science knowledge is reliability. People usually rely on scientist’s sayings because they are justified and scientifically proven beliefs. Theories are never announced unless they are falsified. In science, the accuracy and the veracity of any information is a necessary basic building block to the wider research and the publication of any theory and its generalization (If possible). Scientists are viewing the world and the elements that surround them, analyze and interpret the factors that concern their lives and broadcast new concepts. This process is called experiment.
Mission Is there a set framework of ethical rules that scientists are obliged to follow? Unfortunately, no. Therefore every scientist is left to what he/she believes is ethical. Ethics in science has created great controversy over the past centuries. Therefore we are only left with is the way we think. Do we think scientifically? Do we weigh all of the possible consequences that may affect our surroundings? Or do we just carry on with our experiments regardless of who or what we harm? Our mission in this project is to raise awareness about science’s importance and how ethics is related to it. We should be able to weigh the pros and cons of a certain action
Board members Ahd Hashish Kenzi Heiba Zeina El Fakahany
Are Ethics Important?
Ethics is very important in science as it establishes a civilized society. Ethics in research is an important part of professional life of every researcher and it influences society in multiple ways. It is essential for any researcher/ scientist to respect the principles of ethics, and to consider the law regarding proper conduct in scientific research. We must take into account not only our personal wellbeing, but also that of others. Moreover If ethics are considered in science, this should make sure that the work is acceptable to the research community and other users of the research results, because being ethical also means being honorable and not publishing false or inaccurate or biased results. This will help in the development of science.
It is important to conduct research in line with ethical standards in order to respect and cause no harm to the participants of any experiment. A perfect example for this is the “Stanford prison experiment”. 24 male students out of 75 were selected to take on randomly assigned roles of prisoners and guards in a mock prison situated in the basement of the Stanford psychology building. The participants adapted to their roles well beyond Philip Zimbardo (A psychology professor)'s expectations, as the guards enforced authoritarian measures and ultimately subjected some of the prisoners to psychological torture. Many of the prisoners passively accepted psychological abuse and, at the request of the guards, readily harassed other prisoners who attempted to prevent it. The experiment even affected Zimbardo himself, who, in his role as the superintendent, permitted the abuse to continue. Two of the prisoners quit the experiment early and the entire experiment was abruptly stopped after only six days. The experiment was conducted in a very unethical manner that affected the wellbeing on innocent students. After only 36 hours, one prisoner began to act "crazy", as Zimbardo described: " began to act crazy, to scream, to curse, to go into a rage that seemed out of control. It took quite a while before we became convinced that he was really suffering and that we had to release him." The experiment was compared to another famous unethical experiment called “the Milgram experiment”, in which ordinary people fulfilled orders to administer what appeared to be agonizing and dangerous electric shocks to a confederate of the experimenter.
Another example is if medical researchers approve unsafe medicine, people can die. All in all ethics are crucial in science as they are there to prevent us from hurting other people, whether it is psychologically or physically, it is not worth the price when we can learn and obtain accurate results without the harm of human beings. We have vast resources to utilize, but we are being protected by our ethics, to keep the human race from extinction and to obtain a healthy and civilized environment.
Save Our Environment!
12 million animals are being used for scientific purposes each year.
We have much to lose if biodiversity keeps on increasing at this rate. Food production will dramatically decrease, not to mention loss of medicine, and loss of dependable water supplies.
This has played a huge role in decreasing our environment’s biodiversity. We are losing 50-150 species daily, which is 10,000 times greater than the natural rate of species extinction.
Is it Worth it?
“This is how 300,000 lab animals suffer each year!” What makes science unethical? What makes science unethical is when the research is conducted through bad behavior that affects our wellbeing and the wellbeing of our environment. Science can be unethical because a lot of the research conducted sometimes include cases of human and animal experimentation. Scientists tend to go through extreme cases of experimentation where they torture animals and even people just for the sake of science. Scientists have even used orphans as participants in their experiments as no parents would be willingly volunteering their own children’s health and putting them at risk. One of the very well known unethical studies that used orphans in their research is called “The monster study”.
The only purpose of the experiment was to destroy the self-confidence of children in hopes that psychologists could discover why stuttering happens. None of the children became stutterers, but several of them remained traumatized for life. Depression and loss of self-esteem were the most common problems among the children that participated in the study. Scientists would even disregard poor orphan children’s health just for the advancement of science. This is why science is sometimes viewed as cruel and unethical, because of insensitive and unethical scientists.
Stem Cell Research
Stem cell research is a new technology that takes basic human cells and develops them into most any of the 220 varieties of cells in the human body, including blood cells and brain cells.
Advantages
Some scientists and researchers even have great hope for this research and its ability to uncover treatments and possibly even cures for some of the worst diseases including heart disease, diabetes, and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
Do you think stem cell research is ethical? Try weighing the pros and cons.
Disadvantages of Stem Cells?
People
tend to worry about
the potential of human cloning that arise from stem cell research. Moreover, people also have serious concerns over the ethics of conducting scientific research on and destruction of human embryos.
The other major ethical issue related to stem cell research involves the ongoing debate over when life begins. Some say that life begins at conception and that the use of humans, even immature ones, for research purposes is unethical. Others claim that the embryos are only tiny amounts of undifferentiated tissue and since they are already scheduled for destruction, and have great potential benefit, they should be used to potentially help others.
Against Genetic Engineering? People tend to believe that genetic engineering and cloning are the same. Although there are similarities, they are most certainly not the same concept.
Farmers, environmentalists and Genetic engineering is a method of introducing new genes into an organism. Thus, it is a method of altering an organism, not copying it.
Cloning is a method of asexual reproduction, and results in the birth of one animal (the animal clone) that is a genetic copy of another animal.
consumers from all over Spain demonstrate in Madrid under the slogan "GMO-free agriculture." They demand the Government to follow the example of countries like France, Germany or Austria, and ban the cultivation of GM maize in Spain.
Do you think cloning is ethical? This has been one of the most controversial topics related to ethics in science. I have to admit most of the people i met accept genetic engineering over cloning. Some claim that it is unethical since God is the only one who should create life. But what if it is for the better of the society like cloning cows rather than waiting for the entire breeding cycle for example. in other words there are no set laws that indicate what is ethical and what is not. That is why we are left with the way we think. We should be able to weigh the possible pros and cons rather than hastily judgng based on experience or bias.
Is there a specific code of ethics? Asking scientists to abide by an ethical code seems sensible, but will it actually achieve anything? The UK Government's chief scientific advisor, Sir David King, launched a code of ethics for scientists. Which is a little bit like the Hippocratic oath for doctors. It states seven ‘commandments’ by which scientists should govern their work. The principles are straightforward but suggest that scientists should be more proactive in their efforts to uphold the good name of science as a whole. However, those ‘commandments’ are voluntary and aren’t enforced by any organization. The question is: does such a code achieve anything? The code would be voluntary and wouldn't be backed by an official organization to impose sanctions on those who break it unlike the Hippocratic oath, which is enforced in the UK by the General Medical Council. Most scientists already work to a code of conduct, either officially or unwritten. It does make you wonder where we would be now if such a code had been implemented a century or two ago.
Would there have been the breakthroughs in medical science, nuclear technology, or even nanoscience if such a code had existed? The fifth ‘law’ of the code states that scientists should “minimize impacts on people, animals and the environment”. But, realistically, would we have reached our current level of innovation without animal testing for example? This code might seem helpful and reasonable, but unless its enforced by international organizations, its effects will be limited
Humans should pause and think whether or not their actions are ethical or not. whether or not they are harming other aspects of their surrounding for their own selfish gain. Ethics in science is a choice, not a restriction.
The Seven Principles Act with skill and care, keep skills up to date Prevent corrupt practice and declare conflicts of interest Respect and acknowledge the work of other scientists Ensure that research is justified and lawful Minimize impacts on people, animals and the environment Discuss issues science raises for society Do not mislead; present evidence
The World’s Most Famous Clone, Dolly The Sheep!
The possibility of human cloning started when Scottish scientists at Roslin Institute created the first and most famous mammal to be cloned, Dolly the Sheep, in 1996!
Dolly was the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, rather than an embryo. This was not only a major scientific achievement, but it also raised ethical concerns.
From 277 cell fusions, 29 early embryos developed and were implanted into 13 surrogate mothers. But only one pregnancy went to full term, and the 6.6kg Finn Dorset lamb was born after 148 days!
Since 1996, when Dolly was born, other sheep have been cloned from adult cells, as have mice, rabbits, horses, donkeys, pigs, goats and cattle.
Misconception? Are Ethics and Religion the same?
There have been several claims about how ethics and religion are the same, yet ethics and religion are two different things. However, they can indeed seem very similar as they both encourage the concept of “doing the right thing� and going by morals and principles, and that is why a lot of people confuse them to be the same thing. Religion is based on the idea that God reveals insights about life and its true significance. These insights are stated in texts such as the Bible, the Torah, and the Quran. Ethics on the other hand, from a precisely humanistic viewpoint, is based on the principles of reason. This means anything that is not rationally verifiable cannot be considered reasonable. From this perspective, ethical principles do not stem their authority from religious guidelines. Instead, these principles are maintained for their value in promoting independent and responsible individuals, people who are capable of making decisions that maximize their own well being while respecting the well being of others.
Am I A Scientific Thinker?
Scientists should always be impartial and avoid being _________ when gathering information. _____________and creativity are crucial but underestimated qualities in a scientist, as they help him interpret observations in various ways. Science is the process of knowing the ___________ world Scienti=ic research greatly depends on a country's ___________ Science is never ____________ ; evidence and observations gradually change over time Your experiment has to be_____________; meaning that your peers can carry the same steps and =ind out the same results you did. Across 2. 6. Down 1. 3. 4. 5.
T
Cloning and Stem Cell Work Earns Nobel Two scientists, Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan and John B. Gurdon of the University of Cambridge in England, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology. They helped lay the foundation for regenerative medicine, which is a controversial idea that consists of rebuilding the body with tissues generated from its own cells. Their discoveries were mainly concentrated around the manipulation of living cells and discovering techniques for cloning and generating stem cells. Stem cells are basically the primitive cells from which the mature tissues of the body develop. Dr. Gurdon was mainly recognized for being the first to clone an animal, a frog, in 1962. He was able to produce living tadpoles from the adult cells of a frog. His technique was to extract the cell nucleus, containing the frog’s DNA, from a mature intestinal cell and inject
nucleus and direct its genes to switch from the duties of an intestinal cell to those appropriate to a developing egg. how did the egg cell body undergo the reprogramming process? This is when Dr. Yamanka’s revolutionary discoveries were needed.Working with mice, he discovered that the reprogramming can be accomplished by just four specific gene control agents in the egg. Stem cell generated by this method, could then be made to mature into any type of adult cell in the body, a finding with obvious potential for medical benefits.Unfortunately their work was at first greeted with skepticism because it contradicted the textbook dogma that adult cells are only assigned to their specific functions and cannot have any other functions. Finally their sheer persistence and determination was finally rewarded with a Nobel Prize in April 2009.
Revolutionary Innovation..The Human Genome project
If you had the chance to anticipate any kind of disease that might threaten your life, would you grasp it, or call it unethical?
Dr J Craig Ventor and his team sequenced the human genome in 2000.
Ethical... or Not? According to a survey by Debate.org around 77% think it’s morally acceptable, while 23% believe it’s not.
Human Genome refers to the entire genetic make up of human beings bearing in mind that every human cell contains around 4000 genes!The Human Genome Project gives us detailed information about the structure, organization and function of Human
DNA.
Why? People weighed the advantages and the disadvantages differently
Lets take a look at them:
Pros reveals the differences between the individuals so that suitable treatment can be prescribed and national drug design can be undertaken. So treatment can be more focused and effective
helps improve diagnosis of diseases, early detection of genetic diseases and gene therapy. Countless children could be saved from possible life threatening diseases. How is this unethical?
based on individual In the field of agriculture and livestock breeding, this project helps us understand the plant and animal genome which enables us to create stronger and more .disease resistant plants and
animals.
Cons People are worried that this might lead parents to attempt to determine which character their off spring shall inherit which will lead to the development of “designer baby.�
It could also increase racial discrimination
The success of this project may widen the gap between developed and developing, as only the rich countries alone would be able to enjoying the advance medical treatment.
may restrict the human gene pool and interface with natural selection and loss of diversity among the human population.
David Reimer 1965 – 2004. In 1965, a baby boy was born in Canada
named David Reimer. At eight months old, he was brought in for a standard procedure: circumcision. Unfortunately, during the process his penis was burned off. This was due to the physicians using an electro cautery needle instead of a standard scalpel. When the parents visited psychologist John Money, he suggested a simple solution to a very complicated problem: a sex change. His parents were distraught about the situation, but they eventually agreed to the procedure. They didn’t know that the doctor’s true intentions were to prove that nurture, not nature, determined gender identity. For his own selfish gain, he decided to use David as his own private case study. David, now Brenda, had a constructed vagina and was given hormonal supplements. Dr. Money called the experiment a success, neglecting to report the negative effects of Brenda’s surgery. She acted very much like a stereotypical boy and had conflicting and confusing feelings about an array of topics. Worst of all, her parents did not inform her of the horrific accident as an infant. This caused a devastating tremor through the family. Brenda’s mother was suicidal, her father was alcoholic, and her brother was severely depressed. Finally, Brenda’s parents gave her the news of her true gender when she was fourteen years old. Brenda decided to become David again, stopped taking estrogen, and had a penis reconstructed. Dr. Money reported no further results beyond insisting that the experiment had been a success, leaving out many details of David’s obvious struggle with gender identity. At the age of 38, David committed suicide.
Dr. Harry Harlow 1960 Dr. Harry Harlow was mostly known for the experiments
he conducted on monkeys concerning social isolation. He took infant monkeys who had already bonded with their mothers and placed them in a stainless steel chamber alone with no contact in order to eliminate those bonds. They were kept in the chambers for up to one year. Many of these monkeys came out of the chamber psychotic, and many did not recover. Dr. Harlow concluded that even a happy, normal childhood was no defense against depression. William Mason, one of Harlow’s students, said that Harlow “kept this going to the point where it was clear to many people that the work was really violating ordinary sensibilities, that anybody with respect for life or people would find this offensive. It’s as if he sat down and said, ‘I’m only going to be around another ten years. What I’d like to do, then, is leave a great big mess behind.’ If that was his aim, he did a perfect job.”
Works Cited "AnimalResearch.InfoThe Global Resource for Scientific Evidence in Animal Research." Cloning Dolly the Sheep. N.p., n.d. Web. EUROPA." Protection of Laboratory Animals. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 May 2007. Reinhold, Catherine, ed. "A Code of Ethics for Scientists." Nanotoday. N.p., n.d. Web. "Top 10 Unethical Psychological Experiments." Listverse. N.p., n.d. Web. Wade, Nicholas. "Cloning and Stem Cell Work Earns Nobel." The New York Times. The New York Times, 09 Oct. 2012. Web. Scolari, S., and L. S. Wynn. "Stem Cell Research." WiseGeek. Conjecture, 05 May 2013. Web.