Towards the responsible conduct of scientific research: is ethics education enough?

Abstract

Much of the discourse on 'beyond the laboratory door' biosecurity to date has focused on the need to raise awareness among the scientific community of the risks posed by the rapid advancement of biotechnology in recent decades. While education is undoubtedly important, a growing body of evidence suggests that ethics education does not necessarily translate into ethical behaviour. This trend has already been reported in clinical settings, where research has highlighted doctors' own reports of ethically dubious practices and challenges when confronted with moral dilemmas in their everyday work. The purpose of this paper is to critically evaluate the practical value of ethics education and show why it is an essential, although insufficient, measure for promoting a culture of responsible conduct of research. We conclude by highlighting the importance of continuing professional development as a way of maintaining life scientists' engagement with biosecurity issues and supporting them in active roles in the effective implementation of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC).

Electronic case report forms and electronic data capture within clinical trials and pharmacoepidemiology

“…There are ethical implications of conducting research entirely online. IT is advancing faster than ethical review panels can address and there is a need for greater ethical consideration of conducting research online and how we share data between IT systems and within organizations . Government attempts to legislate – the Health Insurance and Portability Act in the USA, and the Data Protection Act in the UK, have had little impact on alleviating public scepticism .…”

Biosafety and biosecurity in Synthetic Biology: A review

“…High-school bioethics and biosafety education has been also suggested (Evans, 2014), as well as continued professional development to maintain engagement with biosecurity issues (Novossiolova & Sture, 2012) Revill et al (2012) concluded, on the basis of different dual-use educational experiences, "that there is no 'one size fits all' approach to the implementation of dual-use education. Rather, initiatives must be tailored to suit the teaching traditions, geographical and historical context in which they are being delivered.…”

Evidence of Sustainable Learning from the Mastery Rubric for Ethical Reasoning

“…The National Institutes of Health [28] require that "RCR training" spans the scientists' career and Novossiolova and Sture (2012) [20] (pp. 80-81) recommended "continuing professional development" in ethics for scientists, and they call for research on how this might be achieved and assessed.…”

“…The National Academy of Engineering [19] (p. 36) declares this to be a flawed model for ethics education; and Novossiolova and Sture (2012) [20] reviewed the literature around ethics education and describe how this type of educational experience-even if successfully delivered-can fail to be brought to bear in practice. This failure may arise from the learning itself (e.g., [21]), or from perceived failures of the applicability of the ethics instruction to real world contexts and situations.…”