Ethical Issues in Science Today

CCS INTERD 120

Dr. Leroy Laverman (laverman@chem.ucsb.edu)

Dr. Claudia Tyler (tyler@lifesci.ucsb.edu)

The class meets from 12-2 every Wednesday in room 164B (Old Little Theater)

This course will explore the role of ethics in the biological and physical sciences, emphasizing current topics and case studies.  The first half of the course will focus on ethics within the scientific community, with topics including fraud (intentional and unintentional), intellectual property, plagiarism, objectivity in science, and conflicts of interest.  The second half of the course will examine ethical issues raised by science, with topics including medical ethics, genetic engineering, and environmental ethics.  Discussions with researchers at the graduate, principal investigator, and administrative levels will take place several times in the quarter.  Students will be asked to write evaluations on selected case studies and participate in class discussions.  This course is open to all majors.

Required Text:
On Being a Scientist: Responsible Conduct in Research, National Academy Press, 1995.  Available at the bookstore.

Case Studies - (Click here for links)


Publication Ethics

Ethical Guidelines to Publication of Chemical Research (American Chemical Society)

Publication Ethics (C&EN - must be on campus to access)

Schwartz Paper with Mirkin Response - Langmuir


Misconduct

Scientific Fraud - Science

Scientific Misconduct - Wikipedia

Jan Hendrik Schön retracted works - Wikipedia


Misconduct and Ethics Resources

Office of Research Integrity - US Department of Health and Human Services

Office of the Inspector General - National Science Foundation

Report on Professional Ethics 2007 - American Academy for the Advancement of Science

Report on Professional Ethics - Archive - AAAS

Online Ethics Center - National Academy of Engineering

Schedule of Topics

Jan 9 Introduction; scientific method, objectivity, introduction to philosophy and ethics.
Jan 16  Case studies
Jan 23  Misconduct, bias, falsifying data, conflicts of interest
Jan 30 Case studies; Codes of ethics for scientists’ organizations
Feb 6  Intellectual property, patents.  Guest speaker: TBA
Feb 13 Human reproductive science: stem cell research, gene therapy, the Human Genome project, eugenics. Guest: Dr. Kathy Foltz
Feb 20  Biomedical ethics: the Hippocratic Oath, allocation of resources, patient disclosure, human subjects research, euthanasia
Feb 27 Topics in biotechnology: patenting genes, GMOs
Mar 5  Environmental ethics: interactions with the natural world
Mar 12 Summary; case studies

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Last Modified April 13, 2009