The Legacy of the Hwang Case: Research Misconduct in Biosciences

This paper focuses on the infamous case of Hwang Woo Suk, the South-Korean national hero and once celebrated pioneer of stem cell research. After briefly discussing the evolution of his publication and research scandal in Science, I will attempt to outline the main reactions that emerged within scientific and bioethical discourses on the problem of research misconduct in contemporary biosciences. What were the ethical lapses in his research? What kind of research misconduct has been identified? How this kind of misconduct affects scientific integrity? How to avoid it? Focusing on these questions, the paper interprets the Hwang’s case as a case study that might shed light on the worst aspects of highstakes global science. This case presents a group of problems that might endanger scientific integrity and public trust. Regulatory oversight, ethical requirements and institutional safeguards are often viewed by the scientific community as merely decelerating scientific progress and causing delays in the application of treatments. The Hwang’s case represents how unimpeded progress works in contemporary science. Thus, the case might shed light on the often neglected benefits of “the social control of science”.     

Stem-Cell Spin: Covering the Hwang Affair in Science and Nature

In 2006 the South Korean cloning expert Woo Suk Hwang was found guilty of fraud and scientific misconduct. The scandal reached far beyond Hwang's own laboratory, encompassing national pride, geopolitics and global discussions of stem-cell research. But the Hwang affair was also a case of fierce competition between two of the world's leading scientific journals. Individually, Science and Nature used the Hwang affair and their unique positions to air specific and conflicting agendas resulting in completely different narratives as the scandal unfolded. In Science, where Hwang's fraudulent papers were published, the readers learned about a caring and concerned South Korean research director. Science was true to this narrative over a two-year period until finally, around Christmas 2005, there was no longer any doubt about Hwang's misbehaviour. In Nature, on the other hand, Hwang was, from the very beginning, treated with suspicion and framed as a cynical director of a cloning factory. Media studies of science and technology tend to focus almost exclusively on how this framing process works in the mass media and ignore that this process is already well under way in scientific journals that then feed into mass media news stories. Thus the news coverage of the Hwang affair in Science and Nature demonstrates that these two leading scientific journals frame their news stories in important ways that reflect (and are reproduced by) mass media reporting.     

Maintaining Order and Following the Rules: Gender Differences in Punishing Inmate Misconduct

For this article, we examine gender differences in how staff members address inmate misconduct. Using in-depth interviews with forty-three correctional employees, we focus on how their various disciplinary styles create interpersonal conflict between staff members. We find that over half of interviewees are identified as “formal responders” who consistently punish inmate misconduct with formal sanctions, even if doing so creates conflict within the organization. However, female formal responders also claim that they work closely with male inmates to explain the importance of following the rules. They state that this puts them at odds with their male co-workers who misinterpret this behavior as instigating sexual relationships.     

Students' Ethical Awareness and Conceptions of Research Ethics

The study focused on university students' understanding and conceptions of ethical issues in research. Domain-specific and domain-transcending measures were developed to gauge the students' awareness of ethical issues. Responses were obtained from 269 undergraduate and graduate students at a U.S. regional university. Participant withdrawal, the debriefing of research participants, the dissemination of findings, and giving credit to co-contributors were the most challenging ethical issues for the students. Ethical awareness was predicted by professional and organizational socialization, and perspective taking. Contextualization greatly improved the students' ability to recognize ethical issues. Simulations and role-taking are suggested as the means with which to teach students about the ethical issues perceived as challenging.     

Academic and Business Ethical Misconduct and Cultural Values: A Cross National Comparison

Efforts to promote ethical behaviour in business and academic contexts have raised awareness of the need for an ethical orientation in business students. This study examines the similarities and differences between the personal values of Iranian and Australian business students and their attitudes to cheating behaviour in universities and unethical practices in business settings. Exploratory factory analysis provided support for three distinct ethics factors—serious academic ethical misconduct, minor academic ethical misconduct, and business ethical misconduct. Results reveal statistically significant differences between the two cultural groups for ethical (altruism/universalism) values, and for attitudes to serious academic misconduct. No differences were found between the two groups for attitudes to minor academic unethical practices or unethical business practices. Gender influenced responses where females were found to indicate higher levels of unacceptability of unethical practices in academic and business settings than males. This pilot study highlights the need for higher education institutions to develop and enforce policies and practices to publicise, encourage and reinforce higher awareness of the need for adhering to ethical behaviour in university studies as a necessary component of training business professionals.     

经济伦理冲突与经济伦理学困境

市场经济的道德性神话比它的非道德性神话更偏离事实,如果我们从市场经济是道德经济这一假设前提来研究经济伦理学,经济伦理学就会陷入自相矛盾的困境。在现代市场经济中,经济与伦理的冲突是大量的、必然的、不以人的意志为转移的。经济伦理学的真正任务是揭示二者冲突的必然性根据和根源,在二者的冲突中权衡和选择,借助法律在二者冲突之间形成必要的张力,最终找到缓解直至消融二者冲突的出路。     

应用伦理学与伦理文化的变革——兼论环境伦理学的特性

19世纪下半叶至20世纪初,西方古典伦理学的终结和现代西方伦理学的凸显使得应用伦理学成为这一变革的历史产物。当代伦理学的出现在某种意义上说经历了一个理论与现实的结合—理论与现实的分离—理论与现实的再结合的辩证否定过程。这种结合使得应用伦理学的理论基础、基本内容、思维方式发生了重大变化。环境伦理学充分体现了应用伦理学的特性,是伦理文化划时代的变革。     

Navigating the Dialectic: Following Ethical Rules Versus Culturally Appropriate Practice

This study investigated the association between reporting the experience of childhood abuse and perceptions of safety in current adult relationships. Data from 177 couples were collected from both clinic and community samples. Results suggest that when violence is present, people who reported being abused as a child are more likely to have lower feelings of safety in their current relationship than those who have not been abused in childhood. When no violence is present in the relationship, there is no difference in perceptions of safety between those who were and were not abused as a child. Clinical implications are discussed.     

Ethical Analysis in Counseling: A Case for Narrative Ethics,Moral Visions,and Virtue Ethics

The author presents an overview of the current content of ethics education in counseling, grouping that content into 3 areas: decision‐making models, principle ethics, and the standard of care. It is argued that as the field of ethics education has grown, so has the need for additional content models, especially ones that enhance moral sensitivity and reduce objectification of client circumstances. The author presents 3 possible approaches to revising the conceptualization of professional ethics that meet the need for new models: moral visions, narrative ethics, and virtue ethics.     

Creativity and Ethics: The Relationship of Creative and Ethical Problem-Solving

Students of creativity have long been interested in the relationship between creativity and deviant behaviors such as criminality, mental disease, and unethical behavior. In this study we wished to examine the relationship between creative thinking skills and ethical decision-making among scientists. Accordingly, 258 doctoral students in the health, biological, and social sciences were asked to complete a measure of creative processing skills (e.g., problem definition, conceptual combination, idea generation) and a measure of ethical decision-making examining four domains: data management, study conduct, professional practices, and business practices. It was found that ethical decision-making in all four of these areas was related to creative problem-solving processes with late-cycle processes (e.g., idea generation and solution monitoring) proving particularly important. The implications of these findings for understanding the relationship between creative and deviant thought are discussed.     

Creativity and Ethics: The Relationship of Creative and Ethical Problem-Solving

Students of creativity have long been interested in the relationship between creativity and deviant behaviors such as criminality, mental disease, and unethical behavior. In the present study we wished to examine the relationship between creative thinking skills and ethical decision-making among scientists. Accordingly, 258 doctoral students in the health, biological, and social sciences were asked to complete a measure of creative processing skills (e.g., problem definition, conceptual combination, idea generation) and a measure of ethical decision-making examining four domains, data management, study conduct, professional practices, and business practices. It was found that ethical decision-making in all four of these areas was related to creative problem-solving processes with late cycle processes (e.g., idea generation and solution monitoring) proving particularly important. The implications of these findings for understanding the relationship between creative and deviant thought are discussed.     

信息时代的应用伦理学与应用伦理课题--第十一次中韩伦理学国际学术研讨会侧记

20 0 3年 1 0月 2 0～ 2 2日 ,第十一次中韩伦理学国际学术研讨会在中南财经政法大学举行。大会由中国伦理学会、中南财经政法大学主办 ,中国人民大学伦理与道德建设研究中心协办。来自中、韩两国的 1 2 0余名学者以“信息时代的应用伦理”为主题 ,就应用伦理学的学科性质以及信息时代的应用伦理论题展开了热烈的探讨。现将会议涉及的主要问题综述如下 :关于应用伦理学的学科性质与信息时代应用伦理学的精神气质　部分论者认为 ,应用伦理学的核心问题在于 :应用伦理学到底是一种基本价值观还是一种程序方法论。针对国内学者偏执于两端的倾向…