科学家道德责任.pptVIP

The Moral Responsibilities of Science in Society: A Qualitative Investigation of Scientists’ Attitudes Bruce Small - AgR Towards STS Networking in the Asia-Pacific Region Conference 1-2 Dec 08 Introduction Science and technology provide many morally good outcomes for humanity But, ST are also causal antecedents of looming global crises – morally bad outcomes – either accidentally, incidentally, or malevolently (Small Jollands, 2006) Promethean technology – use depends on full range of human nature (Small Jollands, 2006) In an age of Promethean technologies, what are the moral responsibilities of science and scientists to society Research Aim To investigate scientists’ attitudes and beliefs about their moral responsibilities to society with regard to scientific research and technological development Method Unstructured interviews Research approved by UoW ethics committee Informed consent, signed by participants Face-to-face interviews 1-2 hours, conducted in participants’ work offices Both interviewee and interviewer free to raise or discuss any issue within topic Issues (or aspects of) discussed varied across interviews Interviews digitally recorded and transcribed Empirical ethics (Borry et al., 2007; van der Scheer and Widdershoven, 2004) Interview Sampling Strategy Purposive (not random) Homogeneous group scientists with working focus on molecular biology (gene technologies) Maximal variation (n=10) variety of specialist areas, both genders, age, range of attitudes to gene technologies Snowball (n=12) Participant - demographics 22 NZ scientists working in CRIs or universities 12 males, 10 females Age range: 26-60, mean = 44, SD = 8.8yr Field of study: mean = 15.3yr, SD = 8.6yr Disciplines (self-described): plant molecular biology, animal molecular biology, evolutionary molecular biology, soil science, entomology, ecology, economics, animal reproduction, microbiology, animal physiology Current employer: mean = 10.3yr, SD = 9.1yr Education: