Ethics in science

Science, namely in biomedicine, has been able to reach all technologic frontiers raising the question of what should be its ethical and social limits. It is true that the specific ethos of science is to contribute to make humanity better off allowing that people, all over the world, have access to the benefits of scientific evolution. Still there is no doubt that in many different settings, and at a global level, scientists have systematically disregarded basic ethical principles inherent to the human condition. Therefore, it is not surprising that in the last decades, namely after the Nuremberg trials, relevant conventions have been internationally proclaimed by different political institutions. But sharing the same ideals: to preserve the core values of humanity, especially human rights and human dignity, and obviously promoting the ideal that the interests of the subject should always prevail over the interests of science. The Nuremberg Code, the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki, the Council of Europe’s Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights or the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences International Ethical Guidelines for Health-Related Research Involving Humans are some examples of the need for international regulation of science and medical research. All of them, with no exception, suggest core ethical principles that should be universally respected. They can be summarised as follows: respect for persons and the need for free, informed consent; protection of incompetent persons, namely children and psychiatric patients (surrogate decision-making, proxy consent, living will, and so on); the ethical imperative to maximise benefits and minimise harms (beneficence and non-maleficence); privacy rights and confidentiality; justice/equity in the access to healthcare and to the benefits of clinical trials; accountability of healthcare professionals and institutions delivering healthcare; and responsibilities of ethical review committees. Clearly, many moral dilemmas are related to cutting edge technology such as embryo manipulation, stem cell research, physical, cognitive and moral enhancement, cryogenic suspension of human beings, synthetic biology, genome editing and many other scientific programs that can temper with human dignity and even with human nature. On the other hand, ethical dilemmas may arise in clinical trials namely in multicentre research projects conducted by