Untitled Page

Pugwash Workshop No. 286
Pugwash Workshop on Science, Ethics and Society
27-29 June 2003
Paris, France
Precis | Participants | Papers | Report | Student/Young Report


Provisional Agenda


I. Stating the problem

Can science be neutral ?

Ethics and concrete cases in research

Ethics and secrecy


II. Surveying existing institutions and practices;

  • Ethical committees, norms/sanctions
  • Codes of conduct; codes of ethics
  • Hippocratic oaths and pledges
  • Why the present oaths do not work?


III. Assigning responsibilities and suggesting new actions.

  • Responsibilities: Scientists
  • Responsibilities: Governments, Institutions, Citizens, Civil society
  • Education (students, scientists)
  • Information
         - general public
         - ethics of information
         - communicators (intermediates between scientists and the general public)
              * Role/responsibility of the scientists, of scientific communicators;
              * Role of the media
              * Role of funding authorities, institutions, in facilitating communication.

IV. Other issues (to be discussed as necessary)

  • Early warning committee: Monitoring of early signs of situations involving grave risk.
  • Communications between scientists and those interested in the ethical, legal and social implications of science. Need for an international advisory panel to set standards and ensure consistency?
  • How to create a morally and politically charged environment in order to get voluntary codes of conduct/ethics norms effective enough (ineffective in a moral or political vacuum) ?
  • Specific tasks for scientists : world citizenship, war free world
Untitled Page