Great difference in ethics assessment of scientific disciplines

A comprehensive picture of ethics assessment in the EU now available! A major report on the state of the art of ethics assessment in select EU countries, different disciplines and institutions is issued by the SATORI Project, supported by the European Commission through its FP7 funding scheme.

Did you know that the medical sciences are the only scientific disciplines strongly governed by ethical assessment practices? In fact, ethics assessment hardly takes place in the humanities, and has only recently started to gain a stronger position in the engineering and social sciences. Part of the situation can be explained by history and the bone-chilling experiments with humans and animals that took place in the medical sciences. Another part of the explanation, is caused by a lack of harmonisation and standardisation of ethics assessment practices.

The SATORI report on “Ethical assessment of R&I: A comparative analysis” provides a thorough overview of ethics assessment practices in scientific disciplines, as well as by industry, CSOs and government organisation in Europe, the US and China. It highlights common principles and differences and sets the stage for developing a common framework for ethics assessment across all actors and activities.

More from SATORI: http://www.satoriproject.eu

Keywords

• ethics assessment standards

Countries

Austria, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Finland, Italy, Netherlands, Serbia, Sweden, Slovenia, United Kingdom