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Governance of Science: Who Chooses? Who Uses? Who Loses?

Governance of Science: Who Chooses? Who Uses? Who Loses?. SCIENCE IS GOVERNED. Directions and rates of scientific progress are determined by human choice. (We are NOT talking about ideological control of research results, a lá Lysenko; Pope Urban VIII, etc.).

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Governance of Science: Who Chooses? Who Uses? Who Loses?

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  1. Governance of Science: Who Chooses? Who Uses? Who Loses?

  2. SCIENCE IS GOVERNED. Directions and rates of scientific progress are determined by human choice.

  3. (We are NOT talking about ideological control of research results, a lá Lysenko; Pope Urban VIII, etc.)

  4. A. Funding decisions broadly determine what gets done and what doesn’t. • Peer review • Big science • Congressional budget process • Interagency competition • Market opportunities • National Priorities • Etc.

  5. Funding choices influence scientific and social outcomes. • For example: • Climate change definition and policy • Energy research priorities • Health care outcomes: 90/10 problem, etc.

  6. Funding choices influenced by political priorities, democratic process, fiscal trade-offs. • For example: • SSC cancellation • Disease lobbies • Compl. and alternative medicines • Homeland security (TB or not TB?)

  7. B. The conduct of science itself is governed by extrinsic considerations that influence research outcomes. • For example: • National security protection (e.g., classified research) • Equity: clinical trial protocols (women’s health, AIDS, etc.) • Justice/human rights: human subjects rules • Other ethical concerns: e.g., animal rights

  8. C. Governance includes conscious decisions to forgo some avenues of investigation. • For example: • Asilomar conference (voluntary rDNA research moratorium) • Human subjects research • Animal research • Banned substances (e.g., LSD; enviro. toxics) • . . . cont’d

  9. cont’d . . . • Developing country restrictions on sampling by non-nationals • Disabled groups’ opposition to genetic screening, gene therapy • Regulation of cloning, stem cell research

  10. D. Is Science a Moral Obligation?

  11. “On March 1, 2002, in the Reeve-Irvine Research Center at University of California-Irvine, my paralyzed son roman and I watched a formerly paralyzed laboratory rat scamper around. That rat had been given human embryonic stem cells. For that research to mbe made useful for humans, therapeutic cloning is required. . . . A moratorium or ban on therapeutic cloning research would condemn millions to needless suffering and premature death.” Don C. Reed, Washington Post, 2/21/04

  12. “Let us not forget that progress is an optional goal, not an unconditional commitment, and that its tempo in particular, compulsive as it may become, has nothing sacred about it. Let us also remember that a slower progress in the conquest of disease would not threaten society, grievous as it is to those who have to deplore that their particular disease be not conquered, but that society would indeed be threatened by the erosion of those moral values whose loss, possibly caused by too ruthless a pursuit of scientific progress, would make its most dazzling triumphs not worth having.” Hans Jonas, "Philosophical Reflections on Experimenting with Human Subjects," Daedalus 98 (1969): 219-247, 245.

  13. To summarize: Science is highly governed Choices help determine scientific and social outcomes Scientific practice changes in response to changing norms Unconstrained pursuit of inquiry may • conflict with other expressions of liberty • Impinge negatively on quality of life of political minorities AND:

  14. 5. Overall, collectively determined public values and goals are reflected (imperfectly) in choices we make about what types of science to do and how to it should get done.

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