bioethics – Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

On Being a Scientist: A Guide to Responsible Conduct in Research

By Scott J. Pearson | July 16, 2023October 20, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

Ethics in scientific research is an issue appearing periodically in the news… and often not in a good way. Perhaps some ethical lapse has led to a field’s struggles with millions of dollars worth of effort lost. Or perhaps someone falsified results and misled the public. Or governments might exploit research that was supposed to benefit humanity and redirected it to harming people. All these fall under the headline of “Responsible Conduct in Research,” more…

Healthcare Religion-Philosophy

The Ethics of Pandemics: An Introduction

By Scott J. Pearson | June 29, 2023September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

For most of us, the COVID-19 pandemic was one that we would not choose to relive. Unfortunately, epidemics on an international stage occur with relative frequency, every decade or so. While how to avoid major outbreaks is an important target, so is learning social lessons from COVID so as not to repeat them in the future. In this academic primer, Iwao Hirose seeks to distill such ethical lessons into a short, digestible format so that…

Healthcare History Science

The Gene: An Intimate History

By Scott J. Pearson | July 4, 2022July 4, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

Genetics is a field of biomedical research that is both in motion and influential over our daily lives. It promises to help millions afflicted with horrific disease, yet it could be poised to change (or unravel?) human life as we seek to write our own destinies in DNA. Real action in this field has only occurred in the last 200 years, starting with Gregor Mendel and accelerating in the early twentieth century. Mukherjee, an oncologist…