A Hippocratic Oath For Scientists

grrlscientist writes "In response to what appears to be a growing problem of scientific misconduct, a group of people at the Institute of Medical Science at University of Toronto in Canada wrote a scientist's version of the Hippocratic oath. This oath (which is cited in the story) was recited by all graduate students in the biological sciences at the beginning of the 2007-2008 academic year." This blogger argues that merely reciting an oath is not going to help much when "...the corruption in 'science' is systemic. It is due to corporate science being run according to a business model instead of in accordance to an educational paradigm. It is due to unrestrained corporate greed combined with a tremendous disparity in power and income..."

Comments

Well, I don't see why not ...

[ScrewMaster]

seeing as how taking oaths has worked so well for doctors, lawyers and Presidents.

Re:Well, I don't see why not ...

[adisakp]

seeing as how taking oaths has worked so well for doctors, lawyers and Presidents.

Hey now, the president has already taken a Hypocritic Oath or whatever that thingamaggie is called.

Re:Well, I don't see why not ...

[mvdwege]

You'd solve more problems by taking all MBAs and offer them a smoke.

In front of a wall.

Facing a firing squad.

Mart

I don't like this idea

[edwebdev]

Working in a physical chemistry lab, I have always been comforted by the fact that I have the moral high ground over those who work in more profitable fields such as biochemistry, biology, and top-secret superweapons R & D despite the fact that grant money is much more difficult to obtain.

If this oath catches on, where will I be? I'm sure the physicists will agree with me here.

Party on

[TheModelEskimo]

I promise never to allow financial gain, competitiveness or ambition cloud my judgment in the conduct of ethical research and scholarship.

Observation: I am not involved in "ethical research."

Hypothesis: The rest of that sentence does not apply to me.

Conclusion: Never been a better time to be an evil scientist. >:-)

Re:What about for CS and engineering?

[mkcmkc]

I pledge to not release any code which I have not tested or have reason to believe is incorrect and/or incomplete, unless such code is clearly marked as "Alpha." I once had thoughts like these and I think it's a nice sentiment. I'm convinced now, though, that we simply don't have enough control over our profession to make this fly. We pretty much serve at the whim of businessy/non-technical types that will come in and change our requirements/procedures/schedules/standards/etc at will, and there's really little we can do short of quitting. I thank my lucky stars that I've never worked on a software project that could lead to someone's death (even indirectly, I hope).

[I once considered a "hobo code" for programmers--obscure symbols that you could mark code or an office with that would mean things like

• this project is doomed,
• this project is likely to incur a loss of $100 million as it fails,
• this project will get people killed,
• I would be fired if I told the truth about this project,
• I would be killed if I told the truth about this project,
• etc.,

as a warning to other prospective programmers. And yes--I have worked on some really awful projects.]

Re:Besides global warming?

[Anonymous Coward]

My experience is simply that people are people everywhere Citation please?

Re:OMG!! Stallman's GPL is much worse

[bob.appleyard]

Go on about Mafiaa but it (riaa mpaa and the others) have millions of infarctions a day,

Myocardial infarctions? Nasty.