Rock Ethics Institute Audio Podcasts

In the first half of this podcast, Jonathan Beever gives a summary of Dr. Philip Kitcher's intended talk, "Masking the Meaningful", that was unfortunately canceled due to inclement weather. In the second part, Jonathan introduces the next presenter in the Research Ethics Lecture series, Dr. Tom Seager. Seager will come to Penn State on April 6th, 2015, with "A Game-based Experiential Approach to Teaching Professional Ethics".

Why do citizens of the societies we count as democracies fail to react to catastrophic threats? Philip Kitcher, a John Dewey Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, will address this question and explain why he concludes that certain democracies are not genuine when they fail to react to catastrophic threats in his upcoming Research Ethics Lecture Series event. This podcast will give a preview to Kitcher's presentation.

Kayte joined the Commission staff in 2010 after working as an attorney advising drug and device companies on FDA compliance and pro bono for an international children’s health NGO. Kayte received her J.D. and M. Bioethics from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and School of Medicine respectively after graduating from Middlebury College. Kayte’s interest and publications focus on reproductive justice, genetic testing, drug and device regulation, and teaching research ethics. A short summary of her presentation (also found on our iTunes U Research Ethics Lecture Series Page) In 1946, several members of a U.S. Public Health Service team traveled to Guatemala to conduct federally-supported sexually transmitted disease research to aid STD prevention in the U.S. Armed Forces. By the time they left in 1948, over 1,300 vulnerable Guatemalan subjects had been intentionally exposed to syphilis, gonorrhea, and/or chancroid through invasive and painful procedures. Over half of these subjects never received any treatment for their potential infections. The research was never published. When the experiments were later uncovered and brought to the Administration in 2010, President Barack Obama personally apologized to President Álvaro Colom of Guatemala and assigned his Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues to conduct a historical and ethical analysis of the experiments. So what really happened in Guatemala? If the research was “ethically impossible” why did the U.S. government fund and support it? What do we do with the otherwise cherished legacies of those involved? And why do we still care? This presentation will lay forth the facts of not only what happened in Guatemala from 1946-48 but also the institutional context and research ethos that enabled them. It will argue, however, that despite the current robust human research regulations in place it is impossible to completely prevent a researcher from ever having to make an ethical assessment in a challenging environment. This type of casuist analysis is critical to both scientific and medical education.

Research integrity is a universal foundation of good research. It is supported in the U.S. by a rather elaborate system of oversight mechanisms and instructional approaches. Worldwide, however, it is subject to varying degrees of attention, and there are few standards that are accepted globally. This variation can complicate the work of international research collaborations. This talk draws on Melissa Anderson's empirical research on research integrity, in both domestic and international contexts. It also reflects her role as the co-chair, with Sabine Kleinert of The Lancet, of the latest and upcoming World Conferences on Research Integrity. For an audio podcast preview, listen to The Rock's Podcasts. Melissa S. Anderson is associate dean of graduate educationand professor of higher education at the University of Minnesota. Her work over the past 25 years has been in the areas of scientific integrity, research collaboration, and academy-industry relations, with particular attention to the research environment. She was principal investigator of a study funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health on international research collaborations and co-editor, with Nicholas Steneck, of International Research Collaborations: Much to be Gained, Many Ways to Get in Trouble (Routledge, 2010). Professor Anderson serves on the Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and on the editorial boards of Science and Engineering Ethics, the Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, and Accountability in Research. She serves as co-chair, with Sabine Kleinert of The Lancet, of World Conference on Research Integrity (Montreal, May 5-8, 2013 and Rio de Janeiro, 2015).

Research Integrity: Individual Decisions, Global Concerns Research integrity is a universal foundation of good research. It is supported in the U.S. by a rather elaborate system of oversight mechanisms and instructional approaches. Worldwide, however, it is subject to varying degrees of attention, and there are few standards that are accepted globally. This variation can complicate the work of international research collaborations. This talk draws on Melissa Anderson's empirical research on research integrity, in both domestic and international contexts. It also reflects her role as the co-chair, with Sabine Kleinert of The Lancet, of the latest and upcoming World Conferences on Research Integrity. Melissa S. Anderson Melissa S. Anderson Melissa S. Anderson is associate dean of graduate educationand professor of higher education at the University of Minnesota. Her work over the past 25 years has been in the areas of scientific integrity, research collaboration, and academy-industry relations, with particular attention to the research environment. She was principal investigator of a study funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health on international research collaborations and co-editor, with Nicholas Steneck, of International Research Collaborations: Much to be Gained, Many Ways to Get in Trouble (Routledge, 2010). Professor Anderson serves on the Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and on the editorial boards of Science and Engineering Ethics, the Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, and Accountability in Research. She serves as co-chair, with Sabine Kleinert of The Lancet, of World Conference on Research Integrity (Montreal, May 5-8, 2013 and Rio de Janeiro, 2015).

International Research Ethics: Experiences of researchers and participants in the field, and moving forward with ethics training This presentation will outline the expectations and norms for research ethics generally and how they play out in some examples from low and middle income countries. Data will be presented from two studies: one with U.S. based researchers who conduct research in low and middle income countries about the ethics and IRB issues they have faced, and one with participants from clinical trials in LMIC settings. The presentation will then move to describing a large Fogarty-funded and Africa-based training program in research ethics, what it has tried to accomplish, what the successes and challenges have been, and strategies to evaluating such training programs. Nancy Kass Nancy Kass, ScD, is the Phoebe R. Berman Professor ofNancy Kass Bioethics and Public Health, in the Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Deputy Director for Public Health in the Berman Institute of Bioethics. In 2009-2010, Dr. Kass was based in Geneva, Switzerland, where she was working with the World Health Organization (WHO) Ethics Review Committee Secretariat. Dr. Kass received her BA from Stanford University, completed doctoral training in health policy from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and was awarded a National Research Service Award to complete a postdoctoral fellowship in bioethics at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University. Dr. Kass conducts empirical work in bioethics and health policy. Her publications are primarily in the field of U.S. and international research ethics, ethics and learning health care systems, HIV/AIDS ethics policy, public health ethics, and ethics of public health preparedness. She is co-editor of HIV, AIDS and Childbearing: Public Policy, Private Lives (Oxford University Press, 1996). Dr. Kass co-chaired the National Cancer Institute Committee to develop Recommendations for Informed Consent Documents for Cancer Clinical Trials, and served on the NCI’s central IRB. She has served as consultant to the President’s Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments, to the National Bioethics Advisory Commission, and to the National Academy of Sciences. Current research projects examine ethics for a learning healthcare system including quality improvement and comparative effectiveness, informed consent in randomized trials, ethics issues that arise in international health research and ethics and public health preparedness. Dr. Kass teaches the Bloomberg School of Public Health’s course on U.S. and International Research Ethics and Integrity, is the director of the School’s PhD program in bioethics and health policy, and is the director of the Johns Hopkins Fogarty African Bioethics Training Program. Dr. Kass is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine and a Fellow of the Hastings Center.

We rely on universities to conduct research that seeks to explore and address society’s most complex and pressing problems—from obesity and cancer to energy and climate change. However, universities rely increasingly on money from industry to fund scientific research. Sometimes industry support comes in the form of research grants; at other times, in the form of corporate philanthropy. Critics often express concern about individual financial conflicts of interest, pointing to several studies that find a correlation between industry funding of research and results that are more favorable to industry sponsors. However, far less attention has been paid to the broader systemic effects of industry funding on research universities and on scientific research. This lecture will explore these broader systemic effects, and examine the ethical implications of academy-industry relations, with a focus on institutional integrity; scientific integrity; and trust and confidence in scientists, their institutions, and the products of their research. Jonathan H. Marks is currently a non-residential fellow at theJonathan H. Marks Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. He leads a collaborative research project that is jointly funded by the Rock Ethics Institute and the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics (through its Lab on Institutional Corruption), exploring the ethical and policy implications of industry sponsorship of health-related food research, nutrition education, and practice. Marks has co-organized—with Donald B. Thompson, emeritus professor of food science at Penn State—a workshop sponsored by the Rock Ethics Institute on “The Ethical Challenges and Policy Implications of Industry-Funded Health-Related Food Research” (Penn State, March 2008), a follow-up symposium entitled “Industry Sponsorship and Health-Related Food Research Institutional Integrity, Ethical Challenges, and Policy Implications” (Penn State, March 2012); and the Rock Ethics Institute’s Food Ethics Lecture Series 2011–12. Marks took the lead role in developing Penn State’s new dual-title Ph.D. program in bioethics (the first of its kind in the country) that allows and requires students to combine bioethics with one of a number of other disciplines in their dissertation. Marks has published widely on the intersections of law, ethics, human rights, and policy, and his work has appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, American Journal of Law and Medicine, American Journal of Bioethics, and the Hastings Center Report (among others). He has also authored or co-authored op-eds for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and The Times (London) (among others). In addition to his work on food ethics, he writes about, teaches courses, and has co-organized an international conference on neuroethics and neurolaw. He has also written extensively about the role of health professionals in detention and interrogation in the “war on terror”—part of an ongoing larger project that explores the relationship between professional ethics and human rights. Jonathan Marks spent 2009–2011 in residence at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard, and prior to joining Penn State, was a Greenwall Fellow in Bioethics at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins Universities. Marks is also a barrister and academic member of Matrix Chambers, London. While in full time legal practice, he was involved in a number of landmark cases including the Pinochet case and the Olivieri case—the latter arising from a dispute between a physician-researcher and the drug company sponsor of her clinical trials.

This presentation will (i) describe the problem of child abuse, particularly as it relates to reporting suspected abuse; (ii) share research findings from the Center for the Protection of Children; and (iii) discuss some of the ethical and practical challenges that arise in our efforts to protect children from abuse. Benjamin H. Levi, MD PhD, is a practicing pediatrician and a philosopher who is a Professor in the Departments of Humanities and Pediatrics at the Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Children’s Hospital. In addition to his other work in bioethics, Dr. Levi is recognized as an expert on ethical and professional concerns regarding the reporting of suspected child abuse. Dr. Levi has published and lectured widely on this topic, both nationally and abroad. Dr. Levi is Director of Penn State Hershey’s Center for the Protection of Children; along with colleagues has been instrumental in developing Penn State Children’s Hospital initiatives for the treatment and prevention of child abuse; and is co-creator of Look Out for Child Abuse, an extensive online resource that includes the Commonwealth’s only web-based tool for reporting suspected abuse. Dr. Levi earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy from Antioch College; his Master’s Degree in Philosophy, PhD in Philosophy of Education, and Doctor of Medicine from the University of Illinois in Urbana; and completed his Pediatrics Residency at Memorial Medical Center in Savannah, Georgia. Dr. Levi joined the faculty at Penn State Hershey in 1999, and since that time has been the recipient of numerous awards, including: the Hinkle Award for Translational Research; 4 awards for Outstanding Patient Satisfaction; an Excellence in Teaching award from Penn State medical students; a prestigious four-year Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Faculty Scholarship; a Community Service Award for his work on child abuse; a Founder’s Award for service to foster children; and a 12-month University Research Sabbatical during which he traveled to New Zealand and Australia, examining their systems for responding to suspected child abuse.

We rely on universities to conduct research that seeks to explore and address society’s most complex and pressing problems—from obesity and cancer to energy and climate change. However, universities rely increasingly on money from industry to fund scientific research. Sometimes industry support comes in the form of research grants; at other times, in the form of corporate philanthropy. Critics often express concern about individual financial conflicts of interest, pointing to several studies that find a correlation between industry funding of research and results that are more favorable to industry sponsors. However, far less attention has been paid to the broader systemic effects of industry funding on research universities and on scientific research. This lecture will explore these broader systemic effects, and examine the ethical implications of academy-industry relations, with a focus on institutional integrity; scientific integrity; and trust and confidence in scientists, their institutions, and the products of their research. Jonathan H. Marks is currently a non-residential fellow at theEdmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. He leads a collaborative research project that is jointly funded by the Rock Ethics Institute and the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics (through its Lab on Institutional Corruption), exploring the ethical and policy implications of industry sponsorship of health-related food research, nutrition education, and practice. Marks has co-organized—with Donald B. Thompson, emeritus professor of food science at Penn State—a workshop sponsored by the Rock Ethics Institute on “The Ethical Challenges and Policy Implications of Industry-Funded Health-Related Food Research” (Penn State, March 2008), a follow-up symposium entitled “Industry Sponsorship and Health-Related Food Research Institutional Integrity, Ethical Challenges, and Policy Implications” (Penn State, March 2012); and the Rock Ethics Institute’s Food Ethics Lecture Series 2011–12. Marks took the lead role in developing Penn State’s new dual-title Ph.D. program in bioethics (the first of its kind in the country) that allows and requires students to combine bioethics with one of a number of other disciplines in their dissertation. Marks has published widely on the intersections of law, ethics, human rights, and policy, and his work has appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, American Journal of Law and Medicine, American Journal of Bioethics, and the Hastings Center Report (among others). He has also authored or co-authored op-eds for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and The Times (London) (among others). In addition to his work on food ethics, he writes about, teaches courses, and has co-organized an international conference on neuroethics and neurolaw. He has also written extensively about the role of health professionals in detention and interrogation in the “war on terror”—part of an ongoing larger project that explores the relationship between professional ethics and human rights. Jonathan Marks spent 2009–2011 in residence at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard, and prior to joining Penn State, was a Greenwall Fellow in Bioethics at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins Universities. Marks is also a barrister and academic member of Matrix Chambers, London. While in full time legal practice, he was involved in a number of landmark cases including the Pinochet case and the Olivieri case—the latter arising from a dispute between a physician-researcher and the drug company sponsor of her clinical trials.

This is a preview of the Dr. Levi lecture on November 15th at 3:30 p.m. Dr. Levi will (i) describe the problem of child abuse, particularly as it relates to reporting suspected abuse; (ii) share research findings from the Center for the Protection of Children; and (iii) discuss some of the ethical and practical challenges that arise in our efforts to protect children from abuse. Benjamin H. Levi, MD PhD, is a practicing pediatrician and a philosopher who is a Professor in the Departments of Humanities and Pediatrics at the Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Children’s Hospital. In addition to his other work in bioethics, Dr. Levi is recognized as an expert on ethical and professional concerns regarding the reporting of suspected child abuse. Dr. Levi has published and lectured widely on this topic, both nationally and abroad. Dr. Levi is Director of Penn State Hershey’s Center for the Protection of Children; along with colleagues has been instrumental in developing Penn State Children’s Hospital initiatives for the treatment and prevention of child abuse; and is co-creator of Look Out for Child Abuse, an extensive online resource that includes the Commonwealth’s only web-based tool for reporting suspected abuse. Dr. Levi earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy from Antioch College; his Master’s Degree in Philosophy, PhD in Philosophy of Education, and Doctor of Medicine from the University of Illinois in Urbana; and completed his Pediatrics Residency at Memorial Medical Center in Savannah, Georgia. Dr. Levi joined the faculty at Penn State Hershey in 1999, and since that time has been the recipient of numerous awards, including: the Hinkle Award for Translational Research; 4 awards for Outstanding Patient Satisfaction; an Excellence in Teaching award from Penn State medical students; a prestigious four-year Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Faculty Scholarship; a Community Service Award for his work on child abuse; a Founder’s Award for service to foster children; and a 12-month University Research Sabbatical during which he traveled to New Zealand and Australia, examining their systems for responding to suspected child abuse.

Though often cited as our most precious resource and dearest commodity, children – particularly those institutionalized in orphanages, mental asylums, and warehouses for the “feebleminded” – were often sought out by physicians and medical researchers as test subjects for experimentation. Even a cursory examination of 20th century medical research will illuminate numerous examples of children – some only days old – being incorporated in a wide range of medical research. Many prominent investigators in search of practical treatments and vaccines, exploring the impact of radiation and psychotropic drugs, or new surgical procedures like lobotomy, routinely found their way to poorly funded and under-staffed state institutions housing the nation’s most vulnerable citizens. Allen Hornblum an author and public lecturer. He has served as the Chief-of-Staff in the Philadelphia Sheriff's Office, the Pennsylvania Crime Commission, and the Philadelphia Prison System. In addition to writing several books, such as Acres of Skin, Confessions of a Second Story Man, and the forthcoming Against Their Will, he has presented before a cross-section of organizations such as the National Institutes of Health, Institute of Medicine and a host of medical schools.

The Research Ethics Lecture Series creates a new opportunity for students, educators, researchers, and the members of the community to explore the impacts of science as being integrated in a broader social context and to be exposed to new ways of spotting how value claims, whether epistemic or moral, shape the scientific enterprise.

In this recap we talk about Dr. Krimsky's visit to Penn State University and the impact of both his informal and formal lectures.

A podcast discussing the goals of this series.

Though often cited as our most precious resource and dearest commodity, children – particularly those institutionalized in orphanages, mental asylums, and warehouses for the “feebleminded” – were often sought out by physicians and medical researchers as test subjects for experimentation. Even a cursory examination of 20th century medical research will illuminate numerous examples of children – some only days old – being incorporated in a wide range of medical research. Many prominent investigators in search of practical treatments and vaccines, exploring the impact of radiation and psychotropic drugs, or new surgical procedures like lobotomy, routinely found their way to poorly funded and under-staffed state institutions housing the nation’s most vulnerable citizens.

Curious about The Rock? Curious about what we do? Listen to our inaugural podcast discussing these topics and more!