Youth Forum:

Ethics of Science and

Technology

Palangpon Kongsaeree, Ph.D.

Department of ChemistryFaculty of Science, Mahidol

University

New technology raises ethical issues!

• Knowledge-based society

• Capitalism

• economy-driven scientific development

• profit-driven science

• Information technology

Scientific Experimental Data

truthfulness Fabricated data

accurate and complete record-keeping

Falsified or invented results

data interpretation

Plagiarism

inevitable HONEST ERROR

Hoaxes

Experimental errors from negligence

• Competitive : Rush to publication

(hiring/promotion/grant support/hot topics)

• Bias/misconception: misinterpretation

• Oversight of students

• Selective report of data

Research results: permanently maintainedand made available

• Data available to advisors/collaborators

• Prior to publication, co-author can examinea manuscript

• Unwilling to accept responsibility should not be a co-author

• After publication, original data should be

maintained and available to others

Youth Forum: Ethics of Science and Technology, COMEST, March 25th,2005 P. Kongsaeree

July 25, 2003

New technology raises ethical issues!

Test-tube babyIn vitro fertilization

July 25, 1978

1981: USA2004: 100,000+ cases

1932Huxley

2005Rodney Copperbottom

2000: Cloning ?2010: Cloning ? 2020: Cloning ?2030: Cloning ?2040: …………?

Law One: 1. Robots must never harm human beings or, through inaction,

allow a human being to come to harm.

Law Two: Robots must follow instructions from humans without

violating rule 1.

Law Three: Robots must protect themselves without violating the other rules.

Asimov's Laws of Robotics

Youth Forum: Ethics of Science and Technology, COMEST, March 25th,2005 P. Kongsaeree

Nanotechnology: The good …….. What’s the bad?

1966, Richard Fleischer

http://www.foresight.org

• Nanomedicine ?????• products with atomic precision• nanowaste

Modern Drug Discovery

Modern Drug Discovery, Vol 7, October 2004.

• $30 billion in annual R&D spending and $150 billion in product sales• reinvest an average of 20% of their sales dollars in new product development.

Pfizer: $39.631 billion/ R&D $7.131 billionLipitor/torcetrapib (atherosclerosis) Edotecarin (topoisomerase inhibitor for cancer) Roflumilast (obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma) Exubera (inhaled insulin system for diabetes) Capravirine (HIV/AIDS) Macugen (macular degeneration) Lasofoxifene (osteoporosis) Asenapine (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder)

GlaxoSmithKline : $29.0 billion /R&D $4.577 billion

480848 (atherosclerosis) Etaquine (malaria prophylaxis) Talnetant (irritable bowel syndrome) 572016 (solid tumors) Nelarabine (acute lymphoblastic leukemia and lymphomas) 353162 (antidepressant) 274150 (asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease)Cervarix (human papillomavirus vaccine)

Johnson & Johnson :$19.517 billion / R&D : $4.68 billion

Paliperidone ER (schizophrenia)

Remicade (gastrointestinal and autoimmune diseases)

Procrit (anemia)

Levaquin (infectious disease)

Doxil (cancers)

OROS hydromorphone (chronic pain)

Reopro (cardiovascular)

Dapoxetine (premature ejaculation)

Roche: $16.97 billion / R&D $3.75 billion

R744 (cancer-related anemia)

R873 (male erectile dysfunction)

R1558 (bacterial infection)

R1628 (rheumatoid arthritis)

R1496 (obesity)

R1497 (Parkinson’s disease)

R1454 (solid tumors)

R411 (asthma)

Youth Forum: Ethics of Science and Technology, COMEST, March 25th,2005 P. Kongsaeree

Tropical diseases: Curses of the poor

Youth Forum: Ethics of Science and Technology, COMEST, March 25th,2005 P. Kongsaeree

Learn from our past mistakes. History always repeats itself.

• Past failures to consider environmental consequences early have been costly:

– semiconductor industry (metals, solvents)

– synthetic chemicals (PCB, DDT, Freon)

– applications of natural compounds

(chlorine, asbestos)

– transportation, energy

(air pollution, global warming,

nuclear wastes)

• Small adjustments early in the trajectory of a

technology have large consequences.

• Must introduce the environmental

perspective early into the culture of emerging technologies

• Advancement in multidisciplinary science:More complex science ethical

• Preventive measurements

Youth Forum: Ethics of Science and Technology, COMEST, March 25th,2005 P. Kongsaeree

: Education + Education + Education (What to do and what not to do)

: Information technology – The Internet

: Think Globally, act LOCALLY

Ethics for the YOUTH

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" Robert FulghumThese are the things I learned: • Share everything. • Play fair. • Don't hit people. • Put things back where you found them. • Clean up your own mess. • Don't take things that aren't yours. • Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody. • Wash your hands before you eat. • Flush. • Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. • Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some. • Take a nap every afternoon. • When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together. • Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that. • Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we. • And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK