Research Ethics02: The State of Things (old)
Recent essays [e.g., Farnsworth and Roskovsky (1993) and Minteer and Collins (2005a, 2005b)] have called for development of a comprehensive ethical foundation for guiding ecological research and management of ecological systems (Minteer and Collins 2005a). However, these and other authors (e.g., Marsh and Kenchington 2004) point out that the ecological community has not adequately addressed this important issue. Farnsworth and Roskovsky (1993) argue that several factors may have impeded discussion and development of an ethical foundation for ecological research, including concern about attracting public attention, an assumption that the benefits of research outweigh its negative effects on ecological systems, lack of documentation of such negative effects, and a belief that ecologists inherently understand that certain experiments are inappropriate. Farnsworth and Roskovsky (1993) also proposed a public dialogue between scientists and philosophers aimed at developing an ethical foundation for the conduct of ecological research. Twelve years later, however, Minteer and Collins (2005a) concluded that this dialogue had not yet happened.
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