Tag Archives: ethics

Genetics, Philosophy, Software

A broken contract

Erika Check Hayden ( who asked me by email before she wrote that piece ) has a new article about “A broken contract – as researchers find more uses for data, informed consent has become a source of confusion. Something has to change“. While I largely agree with her analysis of the current situation, her points for change are somewhat weakly described ( BTW that paper already generated a heated discussion at The Mermaid’s Tale: “Informed consent — who’s it supposed to protect, anyway?” ). Continue reading A broken contract →

 

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Philosophy, Theology

4 tons of CO2

I flew this night to San Francisco, having a chance to read some magazines in flight, including an interview of Stefan Klein with Peter Singer in ZEIT MAGAZIN yesterday. The interview has been done by Skype as Singer says “it is immoral to travel without serious reasons” – a classical Utilitarian perspective that does however not even stop him arguing Continue reading 4 tons of CO2 →

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 03.11.2025
Genetics

Security of genetic data

The judge at the highest court in Germany Hans-Jürgen Papiersaid in an interview last week

Wir stellen nicht erst seit gestern fest, dass dem Grundrecht auf Datenschutz nicht nur von staatlicher, sondern auch von privater Seite Gefahren drohen können

What will happen once my genome once it is on “medical” hardware? Is it as save as the 8,257,378 Virginian patient records that are now under ransom? Continue reading Security of genetic data →

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 03.11.2025
Theology

Just Science Week

The Just Science 2008 will start next week – and here is my last chance to say something non scientific: Science is a method, that has certain prerequisites, works under certain conditions while using techniques with strengths and limitations and is leading to certain conclusions evident to some but not all humans. Needless to say that from a protestant / Lutheran view that there are other ways to explain a phenomenon while providing even extra dimensions like giving an ethical justification.

Haldane / When I am dead / 1928: I am not myself a materialist, because, if materialism is true, it seems to me that we cannot know that it is true. If my opinions are the results of a chemical processes going on in my brain, they are determined by the laws of chemistry, not those of logic.

More at the recent immersion blog post…

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 03.11.2025