Cultural Synthesis: Science and Ethics

It is not surprising that there is substantive resistance to incorporating ethics education into bioscience curricula, given that even in clinical research curricula this is a relatively new development. Arri Eisen and Roberta M. Berry (2002) make a good case for rectifying the current situation with early education. By the time people reach graduate school, they are already very thoroughly socialized. To promote cultural synthesis of ethics and science, resulting in effective and ethical practice, ethics as a frame of reference should be incorporated into one's own core values and sphere of responsibility from the point one begins to become self-reflective, as early as high school. Ethical reflection must be seen as an active responsibility instead of a reactive task related to regulation. In this way, bioscience can more effectively address the types of ethical issues described by Chakrabarty (2002).

Koski, of the federal Office on Human Research Protection, puts it very well when he said "we must move beyond the culture of compliance, to move to a culture of conscience and responsibility" (Hilts 2000). If we are ever to move beyond the culture of compliance model and embrace the spirit and mission represented by ethical review and codes of conduct, ethics education must be coherently integrated into the curriculum and into the daily thinking of faculty and students at all levels, in a stimulating and lively way. However, simply teaching the regulations and the basics of principle-based ethics will be inadequate, because effective ethics education in any field requires self-reflection and personal investment. Success will require continuous learning through a variety of methods. Applicable adult learning techniques include active participation, reflection, interactivity, and dialogue (roundtable) learning (Whalen, Khin-Maung-Gyi, Goebel 2001). Sociodrama is another teaching strategy with potential in this area; it combines a case study approach with role-play simulations and draws on past experiences to heighten reflective learning (Jones 2001).

It is clear that enhancing ethics education will be an important step forward in bioscience, as Eisen and Berry suggest. Ethics education has been found lacking in many fields. In the clinical research field there are still definite limitations to the available educational texts regarding ethical issues (Sears 2001). An evaluation of human subjects protection at the CDC resulted in specific recommendations, with "greatly expanding training opportunities for investigators" placed at the top of the list (Santelli, Ginn, and Speers 2000). In the social science arena Oakes (2002) notes that education seems to modify researchers' frustration with institutional review board (IRB) regulation and proposes heightened self and peer education (along with serving on an IRB oneself) as a solution.

However, in addition to the need for more effective and earlier education, there is also a critical need for institutional support. I see two primary opportunities for improvement: researchers must be better supported in becoming informed and motivated regarding ethical considerations, and there needs to be a focus on quality and process improvement for ethical practice in the institutions with which these researchers are affiliated. Given the lag time to cultural adoption of ethics as a core value, monitoring and evaluation activities will continue to be important into the foreseeable future. Weijer et al. (1995) point out the role that monitoring can play in education and quality assurance at the institutional level. An approach whose emphasis is systems improvement rather than individual error might be the most palatable. It will be important to focus on systems change and to develop aninstitutional memory in the form of clear and useful policies and codes of conduct. Site visits and quality assurance-related activities have the potential to be a helpful and collaborative process, but, unfortunately, such activities are perceived by most as punitive rather than helpful. Terminology and perception are important, and support is most likely to be accepted, and therefore be most effective, if interactions are presented as helpful consultation, even if obligatory. The language used when setting up these systems should reflect the...