﻿ Code of conduct needed to block shady science - Taipei Times
Sun, Jun 12, 2005 - Page 9　News List

Code of conduct needed to block shady science

By Margaret Somerville

An ominous new word has crept into the life sciences and biomedical research: "biosecurity." The term reflects a growing awareness that rapid developments in these fields offer the potential for great benefits, but that the knowledge, tools, and techniques that enable scientific advances also can be misused to cause deliberate harm.

Any effort to address this "dual use" dilemma must ultimately be international, since biotechnology research is a genuinely global enterprise. The international scientific community has a key role to play in ensuring that efforts to manage the risks improve security and strengthen international collaboration to ensure non-maleficent use of scientific advances.

Professor Ronald Atlas of the University of Louisville and I recently presented a proposed Code of Ethics for the Life Sciences in the journal Science. Our proposal on what we need for a code and for its contents have both met with strongly conflicting views. The scientific community increasingly recognizes that science itself is not a value-free activity and, therefore, the choice of what research to undertake and how to undertake it must be governed by ethical principles.

But there is still a nucleus of scientists who oppose that concept, arguing that there must be no restrictions on the search for new knowledge, and that ethical principles only become relevant in the application of that knowledge.

In our Science article, we speculated on scientists' reasons for holding such a view. But, as we noted, "even those who question the value of a code agree that research in the life sciences, including biodefense research, must be conducted in a safe and ethical manner." Bodies speaking out publicly about this need include the General Assembly of the World Medical Association, the British Medical Association, the US National Research Council, the British Parliament, and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders.

A code of ethics is needed because the power of science to result in harm, if it is not well governed, has grown vastly. Society has entrusted scientists and scientific institutions to show respect for life, in particular human life. Safeguards are needed to ensure fulfillment of that trust, in particular, to ensure that science is not used in bioterrorism or biowarfare.

A code of ethics offers several benefits. It would underscore the importance of ethics reviews of proposed scientific research and monitoring of ongoing research, especially research involving humans or animals as subjects. It can also establish a basic presumption of scientific openness and transparency, while allowing for exceptions when there is a real risk that scientific knowledge could be used to cause serious harm. Moreover, a code of ethics could help protect "whistle blowers" who bring ethical breaches to the attention of the relevant authorities or the public. Finally, it could allow for conscientious objection to participation in certain research. In short, a code can help to embed ethics in all aspects of scientific research from its inception.

Although no consensus has yet emerged on a code of ethics, there is wide agreement among scientists that a robust public health system is an essential safeguard against biological threats, whether intentional or unintentional. Security and public health concerns now overlap, whereas traditionally they had been separate areas that elicited different kinds of policy responses. Strengthening the response to naturally occurring infectious diseases or poisoning is needed to protect against the deliberate misuse of science to spread disease or poison. In short, promoting public health, biosafety, and biosecurity, on the one hand, and protecting against bioterrorism, on the other, are linked, complementary activities.

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