The Dilemma of Dual Use Biological Research: Polish Perspective

Biological research with legitimate scientific purpose that may be misused to pose a biological threat to public health and/or national security is termed dual use. In Poland there are adequate conditions for conducting experiments that could be qualified as dual use research, and therefore, a risk of attack on Poland or other countries exists. Optimal solutions for limiting such threats are required, and the national system of biosecurity should enable early, reliable, and complete identification of this type of research. Scientists should have a fundamental role in this process, their duty being to immediately, upon identification, report research with dual use potential. An important entity in the identification system of dual use research should also be the Central Register of Biological and Biomedical Research, which gathers information about all biological and biomedical research being conducted in a given country. Publishers, editors, and review committees of journals and other scientific publications should be involved in evaluating results of clinical trials. The National Council of Biosecurity should be the governmental institution responsible for developing a system of dual use research threat prevention. Its role would be to develop codes of conduct, form counsel of expertise, and monitor the problem at national level, while the Dual Use Research Committee would be responsible for individual cases. In Poland, current actions aiming to provide biological safety were based on developing and passing an act about genetically modified organisms (GMO’s) and creating a GMO Committee. Considering experiences of other nations, one should view these actions as fragmentary, and thus insufficient protection against dual use research threats.     

Managing Dual Use Technology: It Takes Two to Tango

Like nuclear energy, most technologies could have dual use—for health and well being and disaster and terror. Some research publications have brought to the forefront the tragic consequences of the latter potential through their possible use. Monitoring life science research and development (R&D) to prevent possible misuse is a challenging task globally, more so in developing economies like India, which are emerging as major biotech hubs. As a signatory to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, India has put in motion a process of evolving a series of measures to manage dual-use technology. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has taken a lead in drafting model codes of conduct, ethics and practice for use by other S&T agencies to tailor them as per their requirements. Taking cue from the discussions held by the editors of the various medical and science journals in the developed world, the Indian Journal of Medical Research, the official publication of the ICMR, is working on policy and uniform practice of publication of dual-use research results. The Government of India too has promulgated legal provisions to minimize the risks of misuse of technology, like the Weapons of Mass Destruction Act. Clearly, no single agency would be able to manage the dual-use of technology effectively. Multiple agencies have to come together to work in tandem for effective implementation of various measure and also like Janus, ensure that they are neither too restrictive nor intrusive to discourage the development of science.     

How the Powerful Decide: Access to Research Participation by those at the Margins

How do those in power decide to include and exclude those at the margins from community life? We used simulated review of research vignettes to examine how researchers and members of Institutional Review Boards make decisions concerning the research participation of adults with and without intellectual disabilities. Results indicate that decision‐makers are influenced by the disability status of the sample, characteristics of the research in which they are engaged, and their attitudes toward the research participation of adults with intellectual disabilities as well as their own relationship to the research process. For example, decision‐makers may create situations that limit the self‐determination of adults with intellectual disabilities and adults without disabilities within the research context, particularly when the research poses some risk of harm to participants. Implications for theory, action and research are explored.     

提高生命科学研究中的伦理审查质量的思考

我们曾经的生物医学研究中,有些研究者往往只注重自己研究的目的,违犯如《纽伦堡法典》,《赫尔辛基宣言》,《贝尔蒙报告:保护人体受试者伦理学原则及准则》等伦理原则.通过建立健全伦理评审系统,规范伦理审查程序,建立对伦理委员会的审查评估系统,期望使生物医学研究更加符合保护和促进人类健康的目的.     

提高生命科学研究中的伦理审查质量的思考

我们曾经的生物医学研究中,有些研究者往往只注重自己研究的目的,违犯如《纽伦堡法典》,《赫尔辛基宣言》,《贝尔蒙报告:保护人体受试者伦理学原则及准则》等伦理原则。通过建立健全伦理评审系统,规范伦理审查程序,建立对伦理委员会的审查评估系统,期望使生物医学研究更加符合保护和促进人类健康的目的。     

Liberty and Welfare Goods: Reflections on Clashing Liberalisms

Among the numerous moral commodities that political orders can produceand protect, classical liberalism assigns primacy to liberty, understoodas noninterference. As the nineteenth century advanced into its secondhalf, this primacy was increasingly seen as myopic. A more defensibleliberalism will devote itself to a wider range of basic human interests:this critique gained virtually unanimous acceptance within the newliberalism. Yet, surprisingly, during the past two decades classicalliberalism seems to have enjoyed a resurrection. This essay arguesthat it is well merited, that the superficial plausibility of the newliberal critique shielded a confusion between the questions of whichgoods matter and how they are properly to be afforded politicalrecognition.     

Psychoneuroimmunology: Psychology's Gateway to the Biomedical Future

ABSTRACT— How do stressful events and negative emotions influence the immune system, and how big are the effects? This broad question has been intensely interesting to psychoneuroimmunology researchers over the last 3 decades. Many promising lines of work underscore the reasons why this question is still so important and pivotal to understanding and other advances. New multidisciplinary permutations provide fresh vistas and emphasize the importance of training psychologists more broadly so that they will be central and essential players in the advancement of biomedical science.     

From Necessity to Fate: a Fallacy

Though clearly fallacious, the inference from determinism to fatalism (the ``Lazy Argument') has appealed to such minds as Aristotle and his disciple, Alexander of Aphrodisias. It is argued here (1) that determinism does entail a rather similar position, dubbed ``futilism'; and (2) that distinctively Aristotelian determinism entails fatalism for any event to which it applies. The concept of ``fate' is examined along the way.     

Feminist Resources for Biomedical Research: Lessons from the HPV Vaccines

Several feminist philosophers of science have argued that social and political values are compatible with, and may even enhance, scientific objectivity. A variety of normative recommendations have emerged regarding how to identify, manage, and critically evaluate social values in science. In particular, several feminist theorists have argued that scientific communities ought to: 1) include researchers with diverse experiences, interests, and values, with equal opportunity and authority to scrutinize research; 2) investigate or “study up” scientific phenomena from the perspectives, interests, and conditions of marginalized stakeholders potentially affected by the research; and 3) make gender, ethnicity, class, and geographical location “visible,” or use them as categories of analysis when appropriate. Yet, more work is needed to determine what exactly these recommendations would require, and the benefits they would yield, in specific research contexts. Using the recent development of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines, we examine how these three feminist recommendations would have applied. We argue that these principles would have yielded several epistemic and social benefits in the HPV case, as well as in biomedical research more generally. That is, biomedical research guided by these principles would not only be epistemically superior, but also more socially responsible.     

Concurrent Development of Dual Language Assessments: An Alternative to Translating Tests for Linguistic Minorities

This article describes a model for the concurrent development of assessments in two language versions, as an approach intended to promote more equitable testing. The model is offered as an alternative to the traditional approach of translating tests originally created for a mainstream population of native English speakers. We contend that serious theoretical, methodological, and practical limitations of test translation result from two facts. First, simple translation procedures are not entirely sensitive to the fact that culture is a phenomenon that cannot be dissociated from language. Second, student performance is extremely sensitive to wording, and the wording used in the translated version of an assessment does not undergo the same process of refinement as the wording used in the assessment written in the original language. We report how we used our model to develop mathematics exercises in a school district with a high enrollment of English language learners (ELLs). Seven bilingual teachers from that school district were trained to use the model and developed the English and Spanish versions of the same sets of items. We provide evidence that the model allows assessment developers to give deeper consideration to culture as part of their discussion throughout the entire process of assessment development.