Science and Ethics

Description

In Science and Ethics, Bernard Rollin examines the ideology that denies the relevance of ethics to science. Providing an introduction to basic ethical concepts, he discusses a variety of ethical issues that are relevant to science and how they are ignored, to the detriment of both science and society. These include research on human subjects, animal research, genetic engineering, biotechnology, cloning, xenotransplantation, and stem cell research. Rollin also explores the ideological agnosticism that scientists have displayed regarding subjective experience in humans and animals, and its pernicious effect on pain management. Finally, he articulates the implications of the ideological denial of ethics for the practice of science itself in terms of fraud, plagiarism, and data falsification. In engaging prose and with philosophical sophistication, Rollin cogently argues in favor of making education in ethics part and parcel of scientific training.

Bernard E. Rollin is Professor of Philosophy, Biomedical Sciences and Animal Sciences, and University Bioethicist, at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. He is the author of The Frankenstein Syndrome: Ethical and Social Issues in the Genetic Engineering of Animals.

'In this important book the author looks at historical and conceptual aspects of the ideology that denies the relevance of ethics to science. His conclusion is instructive...' The Scientific and Medical Network