Can Science be ethical???

[godslanguage]

Well, can science be ethical? What makes science good or bad?

Whats your perspective on this?

[Canuckster1127]

Well, can science be ethical? What makes science good or bad?

Whats your perspective on this?

Science is a method.

It is value and moral neutral.

It is what people do and how they do it that makes it good or bad.

[thereal]

That's a pretty broad question...can you give a little more context to what you're asking. There are numerous courses taught in universities dealing with ethics, but usually these are focused on whether or not certain aspects of science, such as testing on animals, are ethical or not. Some issues of ethics concern how to represent your findings or to design an experiment . There are also courses in conservation ethics, which deal with the ethical implications of preserving species or allowing them to perish, the implications for human interests as they relate to conservation, etc. What are you actually asking here?

[NeedMoreChipotleTabasco]

Science is a method.

It is value and moral neutral.

It is what people do and how they do it that makes it good or bad.

Exactly. Science is about answering questions. Ethics (in science) is about regulating methodology.

For example, during World War II the Germans wanted to know how long a pilot could survive after parachuting into the English Channel. That's a valid question and worthy of study. The methodology that they employed, however, was to submerge concentration camp prisoners up to their necks in vats of ice water and time how long it took for them to die of hypothermia. That's monsterous, unethical, immoral, and just plain sick, but it doesn't make science unethical - it makes a handful of demented German scientists unethical.

[godslanguage]

Thanks for the replies, but I think everyone summed that up for me, that the people behind the science determine if the science is ethical or not.
Although, I do understand that my question wasn't in-depth enough, I wasn't really looking for an in-depth answer either. Thanks again!