| Popis: |
What is meant by ‘ethics’ is discussed and linked to ‘morality’, after which there is a brief overview of normative moral theories and comments are made about whether it is possible to choose rationally between moral theories. Regardless of this, there is considerable consensus in Western societies on principles (which is codified in various human rights conventions and the World Medical Federation Declaration of Helsinki). However, at the level of substance (which concerns which activities are right, wrong, or permissible), this consensus may be more apparent than real, and it is suggested that effective consensus only exists at a procedural level concerning principles governing how to resolve conflicts about issues of substance. With this as background, the use of statistics when citing DNA analysis as forensic evidence; and the use of heritability studies to make claims about the extent to which genetic factors are implicated in various conditions are discussed. In relation to both uses, it is argued that lack of understanding of statistics in general and of statistics in human genetics in particular has been exploited in ways that are unethical in terms of the existing procedural consensus, and that this exploitation also provides good reason for the public to mistrust scientists. Keywords: ethics; morality; human rights; consensus; forensic evidence; categorical Imperative; deontological theory; teleological theory; Principle of Generic Consistency (PGC); utilitarianism; consequentialism; virtue ethics; contractualism; communitarianism; relativism; intuitionism; situationalism; religious ethics; ethical rationalism; rule of law; legitimation; declaration of Helsinki; heritability; nature-nurture debate; crime control; due process; adversarial model; justic; Kantian theory; Gewirthian theory; IQ |
