BIOS 543 Ethics and Science

(Spring 2003)

Professor: Kristin Shrader-Frechette,	Class Time: Wednesday, 4-6:30

Classroom: 200 Malloy	Website: www.nd.edu/~kshrader

Office: 211 Malloy	Office hours: T, W, Th afternoons,

Sign-up sheet on door

Course goals: to recognize typical ethical problems likely to arise in conducting scientific research

to recognize subtle ways inferences , models,and methodological values can bias science

to understand the many conflicts of interest that face scientists doing scientific research

to teach people to avoid suspect inferences, default rules, and subjectivity in science

to use classical ethical techniques for resolving ethical dilemmas in science

to understand necessary and sufficient conditions for whistleblowing in science

to investigate alternative rules for dealing with scientific behavior under uncertainty

to rethink the various ways that unethical science can compromise values of objectivity, free informed consent, duties to the common good, rights to know,& responsibility

Course Requirements:	readings for every class; attendance and problem analysis in every class; 4 short, analytic presentations/1-page papers, every 3 weeks; 10 1-page synopsis papers ; no exams.

Basis for Course Grade:	60 percent:	4 one-page, analytic, seminar presentations

30 percent:	10 one-page synopsis presentations

10 percent:	in-class analysis

Professor presupposes clear, precise, journal-ready prose and perfect grammar/spelling; use software to help ensure both.

Course Format:	The first half of class will be professor's lecture on the topic of the day. Second half of the class will be seminar presentations by students on the topic of the day.

Course Texts:	several National Academy and AAAS reports on reserve; journal articles on electronic reserve, mostly from Science and Nature; plus 4 books:

E. Erwin, S. Gendin, and L. Kleinman, Ethical Issues in Scientific Research, 1994 (EISR); R. L. Penslar, Research Ethics, 1995 (RE); US National Academy of Sciences, Responsible Science, 1992 (RS); Shrader-Frechette, Ethics of Scientific Research (paperback), 1993 (ESR).

Lecture Outline

Week	Lecture Topics	Case Study	Assignment

1.	importance of ethics in scientific research;	scientific misconduct	Cole, 11th Plague ;

overview of major logical fallacies &	in US labs; National	ESR, ch. 1; RE, ch.2

5 logical criteria for analysis: complete-	Academy studies of

ness, assumptions, consistency,	these labs

consequences, coherence;

how values arise in science	hydrogeological Scriven, Hempel,
models	chs. 1-2, EISR

2.	Scientists' codes of professional ethics	Milgram research;	ESR, ch. 2;

Research that ought not be done?	Tuskegee syphilis study;	AAAS ethics study

5 rules to avoid suspect research	Lewis vs. Marcus:	RS, chs. 6-7

Plagiarism and attribution	Case of Princeton vs. Yale	EISR, ch. 26

3.	Objectivity; inference options ; method-	Dose-response curves	ESR, ch. 3; Mcmullin

ological value judgments in science	in radiobiology	article;

4.	Problematic concepts and how they	"Ecosystem,"" stability," &	McIntosh, Background

empirically underdetermine science	"community"concepts in e-	of Ecology, 2 chs.

Deontological, contractarian res. ethics	cology; "ecosystem health,"

Utilitarian, virtue-theoretic res.ethics	EPA EMAP case	RE, ch. 2

Deontological research ethics

5.	The ethics of data gathering & framing	Chernobyl, Hiroshima-	Schull volume, ch. ?

Babbage's cooking and trimming	Nagasaki databases;	Dubrova in Nature

Specious accuracy	DOE framing	RE, ch. 6

Ethical problems in aggregating data	CWD analysis	Los Alamos EIS

Los Alamos EIS

6.	The ethics of curve fitting and selecting	Island biogeography	Simberloff & Wilson

null hypotheses	debate;	RS, chs. 2-3

Claiborne, LA EIS	Claiborne EIS

Lecture Outline

Week	Lecture Topic	Case Study	Assignment

7.	The ethics of confirming hypotheses:	Yucca Mountain	Q. Rev. of Bio. article

verification, validation, benchmarking;	hydrogeological

problems insystems &black-box models	models	RE, chs. 14, 19

8.	Lying with statistics: heuristic bias,	Dupont's tudy of formal-	Mayo, "Sociological vs

Low-power studies	dehyde carcinogenicity	Metascience Views"

Misconduct in science	MIT biotechnology case	RE, chs. 4, 12; RS, ch. 4

9.	Conflicting duties, paternalism, and	Low-dose chemical horme-	ESR, ch. 4

whistleblowing in science	sis" study, "Junk Science"	Calabrese & Baldwin

RS, ch.5

10.	Funders' control of research publication	Tobacco study of Harvard	ESR, ch. 5

Duties to the common good	Risk Center;

UCA, SF's

Secrecy in science and common good	pharmaceutical research	EISR, chs. 4-9

11.	Research and uncertainty	National Academy study	NAS, Science & Judg-

Decision-theoretic rules for uncertainty;	of default rules in science	ment, ESR, ch. 6

Types I and II statistical error	Ford-Mitre study

12.	Advocacy in Science: distinguishing	Kangas vs. Noss on	Kangas, Noss, in

science from scientists' opinions;	tropical deforestation	Bulletin of the ESA;

confusing scientists' different roles	NAS Yucca study	ESR, ch. 7

military research	Surrogates in biotech.	EISR, chs. 29-30

used in chem. warfare

13.	Racial bias and sex bias in science,	US research on contracep-	ESR, ch. 8; Wenneras

especially clinical trials	tion, in-vitro fertilization,	-Wold in Nature

& defs. of mental illness;

IQ controversy	EISR, chs. 27-28

14.	Company loyalty and research design	Ford Pinto design;	ESR, ch. 9

Conflicts of interest because of	RE, ch. 21

funding sources	Hydrolevel design	De George article

15.	Mandated science;	"gray" science;	DOE research	ESR, ch. 10

Special considerations in science for pub-	Confounders in tobacco

lic policy; duties to do pro bono science	case; diversity-stability H

Class	Synopsis Topics:

Week	Students choose 10:	Seminar Topics: Students Choose 4

2	ESR, chs. 1-2	or ch.5 RE	Post-1990 case study on plagiarism

Post-1990 case study on misattribution

3	ESR, ch. 3 or ch. 12 RE	Post-1990 case study on deceptive research

Post-1995 case study on violations of informed consent

Post-1990 case study on premature publication

4	McIntosh	Post-1990 case study on subjective, nonempirical concepts

5	Dubrova in Nature	Case study on the Lysenko episode or

Case study on Kahneman and Tversky

6	Simberloff et al in Ecology	Post-1990 case study on problematic null hypotheses

or Oreskes et al in Science

7	KSF in Quart. Rev. Biology	Post-1995 case study on misuse of computer models

8	Mayo on Metascience	Post-1995 case study on misleading statistics

9	ESR, ch. 4 or RS, ch. 5	Post-1990 case study on scientific whistleblowing

10	ESR, ch. 5 or RS, chs. 2-3	Post-1995 case study on questionable clinical trials abroad

– in developing nations

11	ESR, ch. 6 or RS, chs. 6-7	Post-1990 case study on questionable default rules

12	ESR, ch. 7	Post-1995 case study on questionable scientific advocacy

13	ESR, ch.8	Post-1990 case study on gender bias in science or

Post-1990 case study on racial bias in science

14	ESR, ch. 9	Post-1995 case study on flawed research design

15	ESR, ch. 10 or EISR,	Post-1995 case study on biased science used for policy

chs. 29-30