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19Using Drones to Study Human Beings: Ethical and Regulatory IssuesScience and Engineering Ethics 25 (3): 707-718. 2019.Researchers have used drones to track wildlife populations, monitor forest fires, map glaciers, and measure air pollution but have only begun to consider how to use these unmanned aerial vehicles to study human beings. The potential use of drones to study public gatherings or other human activities raises novel issues of privacy, confidentiality, and consent, which this article explores in depth. It argues that drone research could fall into several different categories: non-human subjects resea…Read more
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43Expanding the Scope of Research Ethics Consultation Services in Safeguarding Research Integrity: Moving Beyond the Ethics of Human Subjects ResearchAmerican Journal of Bioethics 18 (1): 55-57. 2018.
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16Risk Communication in EPA's Controlled Inhalation Exposure Studies and in SupportPerspectives in Biology and Medicine 60 (1): 117-129. 2017.On March 28, 2017, the national Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a much-anticipated report on the Environmental Protection Agency's controlled human inhalation exposure studies. To understand the genesis of the document, a quick review of recent events is in order.Prior to 2006, the EPA adopted the Common Rule for intramural or extramural research funded by the agency.1 Although the EPA did not have a formal policy that applied to research sponsored by private companies, i…Read more
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39Field Trials of Genetically Modified Mosquitoes and Public Health EthicsAmerican Journal of Bioethics 17 (9): 24-26. 2017.
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34Ethics and Phishing ExperimentsScience and Engineering Ethics 24 (4): 1241-1252. 2018.Phishing is a fraudulent form of email that solicits personal or financial information from the recipient, such as a password, username, or social security or bank account number. The scammer may use the illicitly obtained information to steal the victim’s money or identity or sell the information to another party. The direct costs of phishing on consumers are exceptionally high and have risen substantially over the past 12 years. Phishing experiments that simulate real world conditions can prov…Read more
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22Ethical Issues in Field Trials of Genetically Modified Disease‐Resistant MosquitoesDeveloping World Bioethics 14 (1): 37-46. 2014.Mosquito‐borne diseases take a tremendous toll on human populations, especially in developing nations. In the last decade, scientists have developed mosquitoes that have been genetically modified to prevent transmission of mosquito‐borne diseases, and field trials have been conducted. Some mosquitoes have been rendered infertile, some have been equipped with a vaccine they transmit to humans, and some have been designed to resist diseases. This article focuses on ethical issues raised by field t…Read more
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19Review of Rescuing Science from Politics (review)Studies in Ethics, Law, and Technology 3 (2). 2009.
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40Ethics of community engagement in field trials of genetically modified mosquitoesDeveloping World Bioethics 18 (2): 135-143. 2018.Effective community engagement is an important legal, ethical, and practical prerequisite for conducting field trials of genetically modified mosquitoes, because these studies can substantially impact communities and it is usually not possible to obtain informed consent from each community member. Researchers who are planning to conduct field trials should develop a robust community engagement strategy that meets widely recognized standards for seeking approval from the affected population, such…Read more
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17The Distribution of Biomedical Research Resources and International JusticeDeveloping World Bioethics 4 (1): 42-57. 2004.According to some estimates, less than 10% of the world's biomedical research funds are dedicated to addressing problems that are responsible for 90% of the world's burden of disease. This paper explains why this disparity exists and what should be done about it. It argues that the disparity exists because: 1) multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies do not regard research and development investments on the health problems of developing nations to be economically lucrative; and 2…Read more
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5Review of Rethinking Informed Consent in Bioethics (review)Studies in Ethics, Law, and Technology 3 (2). 2009.
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98A Pragmatic Approach To The Demarcation ProblemStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 31 (2): 249-267. 2000.The question of how to distinguish between science and non-science, the so-called ‘demarcation problem’, is one of the most high-profile, perennial, and intractable issues in the philosophy of science. It is not merely a philosophical issue, however, since it has a significant bearing on practical policy questions and practical decisions. This essay develops a pragmatic approach to the demarcation problem: it argues that while there are some core principles that we can use in distinguishing betw…Read more
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11The Price of Truth: How Money Affects the Norms of ScienceOxford University Press USA. 2006.Modern science is big business. Governments, universities, and corporations have invested billions of dollars in scientific and technological research in the hope of obtaining power and profit. In The Price of Truth, David B. Resnik examines some of the important and difficult questions resulting from the financial and economic aspects of modern science.
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19Responsible Conduct of ResearchOxford University Press USA. 2009.Ethics in scientific research has never been more important. Recent controversies over the integrity of data in federally funded science, the manipulation and distortion of privately sponsored research, cloning, stem cell research, and the patenting of DNA and cell lines, illustrate the need for a more thorough education in ethics for researchers at all levels. Now in its second edition, Responsible Conduct of Research provides an introduction to many of the social, ethical, and legal issues fac…Read more
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25Environmental Health EthicsCambridge University Press. 2012.Environmental Health Ethics illuminates the conflicts between protecting the environment and promoting human health. In this study, David B. Resnik develops a method for making ethical decisions on environmental health issues. He applies this method to various issues, including pesticide use, antibiotic resistance, nutrition policy, vegetarianism, urban development, occupational safety, disaster preparedness and global climate change. Resnik provides readers with the scientific and technical bac…Read more
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The Methodology of Biological ScienceDissertation, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 1990.I argue that seven methodological principles that have been regarded as paradigmatic of good research in the physical sciences, simplicity, generality, idealization, conservatism, experimentation, mathematics, and mechanism, often do not produce good results in biology. It is possible to do good biological research without strictly adhering to these principles, and attempts to apply these principles can produce poor results. Thus, biology's methodology does conform to the standard views of metho…Read more
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11Gaia: From Fanciful Notion to Research ProgramPerspectives in Biology and Medicine 35 (4): 572-582. 1992.
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13Response to KuhseJournal of Medical Ethics 28 (4): 273-274. 2002.In this short paper, we respond to critics of our original paper, The agony of agonal respiration: is the last gasp necessary?. A common thread in both Hawryluck’s and Kuhse’s responses is the difficulties encountered when using the agent’s intentions to make moral distinctions between using neuromuscular blocking drugs to palliate versus using neuromuscular blocking drugs to kill. Although this difficulty does exist we maintain that the intentions of the physician must matter when providing end…Read more
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Genetic modification and genetic determinismPhilosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine 1. 2006.
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47A Pluralistic Account of Intellectual PropertyJournal of Business Ethics 46 (4): 319-335. 2003.This essay reviews six different approaches to intellectual property. It and argues that none of these accounts provide an adequate justification of intellectual property laws and policies because (1) there are many different types of intellectual property, and (2) a variety of incommensurable values play a role in the justification of intellectual property. The best approach to intellectual property is to assess and balance competing moral values in light of the particular facts and circumstanc…Read more
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Fraud, fabrication, and falsificationIn Ezekiel J. Emanuel (ed.), The Oxford textbook of clinical research ethics, Oxford University Press. pp. 787--794. 2008.
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27The Sex Kitten of Bioethics?: Research Ethics Comes of AgeHastings Center Report 38 (5): 4-6. 2008.
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45Playing politics with science: balancing scientific independence and government oversightOxford University Press. 2009.In Playing Politics with Science, David B. Resnik explores the philosophical, political, and ethical issues related to the politicalization of science and ...
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40Scientific retractions and corrections related to misconduct findingsJournal of Medical Ethics 39 (1): 46-50. 2013.We examined all 208 closed cases involving official findings of research misconduct published by the US Office of Research Integrity from 1992 to 2011 to determine how often scientists mention in a retraction or correction notice that there was an ethical problem with an associated article. 75 of these cases cited at least one published article affected by misconduct for a total of 174 articles. For 127 of these 174, we found both the article and a retraction or correction statement. Since eight…Read more
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55Participants' responsibilities in clinical researchJournal of Medical Ethics 38 (12): 746-750. 2012.Discussions on the ethics and regulation of clinical research have a great deal to say about the responsibilities of investigators, sponsors, research institutions and institutional review boards, but very little about the responsibilities of research participants. In this article, we discuss the responsibilities of participants in clinical research. We argue that competent adult participants are responsible for complying with study requirements and fulfilling other obligations they undertake wh…Read more
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48Authorship policies of bioethics journalsJournal of Medical Ethics 37 (7): 424-428. 2011.Inappropriate authorship is a common problem in biomedical research and may be becoming one in bioethics, due to the increase in multiple authorship. This paper investigates the authorship policies of bioethics journals to determine whether they provide adequate guidance for researchers who submit articles for publication, which can help deter inappropriate authorship. It was found that 63.3% of bioethics journals provide no guidance on authorship; 36.7% provide guidance on which contributions m…Read more
Areas of Specialization
Applied Ethics |
Philosophy of Biology |
General Philosophy of Science |