andieje
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ethical issues in chemistry
Hi
Does anyone know of any interesting and meaty ethical interesting issues in chemistry. Some obvious ones might be can chemical warfare ever be a good thing, the ethics of the use of radioactivity. etc
Specifically chemistry and not biochem so not genetic engineering or stem cell research
Thanks
Does anyone know of any interesting and meaty ethical interesting issues in chemistry. Some obvious ones might be can chemical warfare ever be a good thing, the ethics of the use of radioactivity. etc
Specifically chemistry and not biochem so not genetic engineering or stem cell research
Thanks
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Crude oil destruction -- chemical warfare against oil reserves. On the opposite side, investigation of "antidotes" or preventatives.
Tom
Tom
One of the issues which makes pharmacology so expensive:
Testing medicines. When you test it for a first time with human participation, you cannot guarantee that you don't make some harm. But you cannot start mass production until completing these tests. Nazi solved this ethical problem using prisoners of war. Nowadays it costs millions of dollars just to start producing well-known pharmacy like aspirin for example - this high price appears due to numerous formal procedures which accompany starting production.
But this issue concerns rather pharmacology, not clean chemistry.
Testing medicines. When you test it for a first time with human participation, you cannot guarantee that you don't make some harm. But you cannot start mass production until completing these tests. Nazi solved this ethical problem using prisoners of war. Nowadays it costs millions of dollars just to start producing well-known pharmacy like aspirin for example - this high price appears due to numerous formal procedures which accompany starting production.
But this issue concerns rather pharmacology, not clean chemistry.
Should chemists pay a commission to physicists? ;-)
ASKER
One question I thought is whether it is ethical to use chemical knowledge that was discovered unethically. For example, is it ethical to use the medical knowledge gained by the Nazis from experimentation on Jews. I was wondering if there were similar examples of chemical knowledge gained unethically
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thanks
I think it is ethical to employ any knowledge, regardless, how have it been obtained. We cannot help to Nazis' victims, but if we can help to people who are suffering now - we have to do.
Concerning chemical knowledge... I think when people used chlorine and other combat poisons - they got some experience... And we cannot consider this experience as obtained fairly. By the way, I wonder, why are you so much interested in this question?
Concerning chemical knowledge... I think when people used chlorine and other combat poisons - they got some experience... And we cannot consider this experience as obtained fairly. By the way, I wonder, why are you so much interested in this question?
ASKER
i'm interested because i've been asked to find an ethical issue in chemistry and give a talk on it. At the moment I am not particularly interested in people's opinions on the issues, just the issues themselves. Once I have found a topic I will likely need opinions then.
Once I've read a discussion in one of internet-forums (it was about programmers' and engineers' ethics). And after a long discussion, they came to conclusion, that no reason to distinguish any professional ethic problems, we must cultivate just common ethic, and each particular specialist will use it in his sphere, because all professional ethic problems easily may be transformed to common ethic problems.
As one more example of scientific ethic problem (not particularly chemistry), I would give an issue with priority of discovering (sometimes it is very difficult to determine who was the first). As well as similar problem appears (time to time) when Noble Prize Committee decides, who should be marked with this award.
As one more example of scientific ethic problem (not particularly chemistry), I would give an issue with priority of discovering (sometimes it is very difficult to determine who was the first). As well as similar problem appears (time to time) when Noble Prize Committee decides, who should be marked with this award.
ASKER
Programmer78, could you elaborate more on your last point about priority of discovering. I am interested in this issue but I'm not really sure how I could put it into an ethical framework. I can see that the wrong people get accredited for other people's discoveries, or people rush to publish things and make mistakes or stab other people in the back. I feel there is something here worth discussing but I'm not sure how to 'shape' it. For example, I read somewhere that the 2 people who published the cold fusion 'discovery' broke an agreement with a 3rd person who also came to the same conclusions as them.
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Hi d-glitch
I am a biochemist so I have always been aware of the rosmund franklin situation. I always thought that was very sad for her.
So if i was to look at the discovery/invention issue, how would you structure this? I would need to argue the subject some ethical framework. It could be something like, How do you define invention in chemistry (it has to be chemistry although it applies to all sciences really) and in this definition harmful? Then you could say how you can't attribute a discovery to one person because it is the work of many people over many years. You could then find examples about how the race to be the first to discover something has been beneficial and harmful. I need something that can be argued really.
I am a biochemist so I have always been aware of the rosmund franklin situation. I always thought that was very sad for her.
So if i was to look at the discovery/invention issue, how would you structure this? I would need to argue the subject some ethical framework. It could be something like, How do you define invention in chemistry (it has to be chemistry although it applies to all sciences really) and in this definition harmful? Then you could say how you can't attribute a discovery to one person because it is the work of many people over many years. You could then find examples about how the race to be the first to discover something has been beneficial and harmful. I need something that can be argued really.
ASKER
thanks
physics
d-glitch has nice chemical examples