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In Search of Common Values in the European Research Area

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In Search of Common Values in the European Research Area In Search of Common Values in the European Research Area Pieter JD Drenth Ludger Honnefelder Johannes JF Schroots Beat Sitter-Liver Editors Colophon ALLEA - is the Federation of 53 Academies of Arts and Sciences in 40 European countries ALLEA - advises her member academies, acts as a platform for her members and offers advises in the fields of science and science policy ALLEA - strongly supports ethic ways of dealing with science, science policy and public policy in general. ALLEA – ALL European Academies P.O. Box 19121 1000 CG Amsterdam, The Netherlands Tel. +31 - 20 - 5510754 Fax +31 - 20 - 6204941 E-mail [email protected] URL http://www.Allea.org ALLEA President Prof.dr. Jüri Engelbrecht Vice President Prof.dr. Nicholas Mann Staff Dr. Johannes J.F. Schroots, Executive Director Maarten G. Langemeijer, MA, Executive Secretary 2 Content Foreword 7 Frits van Oostrom Preface 11 Pieter J.D. Drenth, Ludger Honnefelder, Johannes J.F. Schroots & Beat Sitter-Liver Introduction: Basic Questions Autonomy and Independence: Key Concerns for an Academy of 15 Sciences and Humanities Pieter Drenth Credibility in Science and Scholarship 23 Jürgen Mittelstrass The Limitations of Science-based Political Advice 29 Jean-Patrick Connerade Fundamental Ethical Issues Common Moral Standards in Europe 37 Ludger Honnefelder Ethics, Politics and Research 49 Jérôme Vignon Towards Common Values of the World Research Area: 55 Autonomy, Responsibility, and the Humanistic Tradition Ayse Erzan Ethical Demands and Economic Decisions 61 Brian Heap & Flavio Comim 3 Related Approaches Common Values in the European Research Area: The Role of the 79 European Union Rainer Gerold Ethics and Politics. The Activities of UNESCO in the Area 87 of Ethics Henk ten Have Teaching of Ethics in Russia 99 Ruben Apressyan Ethical and Moral Impact: Three Cases Biomedical Case Research on Human Embryonic Stem Cells and Cloning 111 for Stem Cells Michel Revel Human Embryo research: A few Reflections on Ethical Issues 127 Andrzej Paszewski Comments on Human Embryo Research 133 Hans Galjaard Case of Migration Bridges Between Research and Policy? The Case of Post-war 139 Immigration and Integration Policies in The Netherlands Rinus Penninx Migration to Europe and the Question of Common Values 159 Hans-Rudolf Wicker 4 Case of Environment Scientific Advice on Environment and National Politics 173 Jan H. Koeman & Jan D. Schiereck Sustainability and International Solidarity 189 Oleg Suša Epilogue On the Wilderness ALLEA Must Help to Cultivate 201 Beat Sitter-Liver List of Contributors 221 5 6 Foreword Frits van Oostrom* Ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues, It is both an honour and a pleasure to welcome you here in the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam, home of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, and to open your conference. The pleasure is firstly a personal one. Having only taken the office of president two weeks ago, and already being able to welcome you all here, is almost like hitting the jackpot at a first try. I’m only sorry that my schedule doesn’t allow me to get to know all of you better at present, since there are many new matters that I need to attend to these days. On top of this, I’m also desperately trying to complete an extensive book this summer. But I promise you that next year I will try to be an as full and active participant in ALLEA's activities as the rest of you. Much more important than my personal pleasure, is of course the institutional one. As you all know, the Dutch academy has been a strong ALLEA supporter since the start – and this is mainly thanks to the personal engagement and vision of the then president, my predecessor at this Academy, Pieter Drenth. I thank and salute him for all he and his staff have once again done for this conference and for ALLEA over the years. I truly feel that it has been worth all the trouble, and that it is indeed of the foremost importance that we as European Academies collaborate. In this respect, it may seem as if we are only following the paths set by politics and economics, and chronologically this is strictly speaking so. But ideologically, this is certainly not so – in fact, I think that the field of science and scholarship is in the forefront of the European movement. The field of science and scholarship can really bridge national boundaries to an extent found almost nowhere else. It has done so ever since universities were created in Europe in the Middle Ages, and stu- dents and scholars travelled from Budapest to Coimbra to Edinburgh, * President of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences 7 involved in an endless exchange of ideas. We as academics are all so familiar with this culture of exchange, that we take it for granted, but it is in fact a wonderful and even miraculous thing: wherever we visit universities throughout the world, even for the first time, we feel right at home, among colleagues, and can engage in a mutual undertaking in such a natural way that it is unlikely that any other profession could do likewise. In this respect, I think it is of great importance that the sciences lead the way in reaching out and crossing boundaries, and counteracting narrow local and national sentiments. This is all the more important since we as academies are, through our members, involved in what is probably the most important task for the future: educating the next generation of European elite, now our students, and soon to be executives themselves. But all this only works if it is more than just a symbolic engagement. ALLEA should not be restricted to form, but be filled with actual and valuable content. In this respect, I want to compliment you on the choice of this year’s conference theme, which is a very timely one. From a Dutch context, it has not been that long, if I understand correctly, that the values and ethics of science and scholarship have been a matter of serious and collaborative consideration. Of course, there have always been ethical matters, but they have mostly been settled ad hoc, individually and discretely – which doesn’t necessarily mean incorrectly, but without much collective awareness, let alone discussion. In fact, I think I’ve seen it increase during the three decades that I’ve participated in academic life: early and strongly in medicine and law, thereafter spreading to many fields that I should think that currently practically every field of scientific study is in some way or other concerned with issues regarding values and ethics. On reading the Chronicle of Higher Education, which reports on some ethical matters at one or more American universities in every weekly issue, I expect this theme to become of increasing importance in Europe during the next years too. We as Academies are the institutions at which people, inside and outside the academic profession, will be looking to take a stand and help to face these issues. Of all intellectual institutions we - more so than universities that are always heavily involved in their self- interests - are the ones people will be looking at for an impartial and 8 wise view on these matters. In our countries, we are all somewhat the conscience of science – and this being so, ethical concerns should be at the heart of our concerns, as academies, and as ALLEA. One final remark, if I may. Ethics in science is usually primarily associated with matters of commandments and limits: what one can do, and shouldn’t do, where lines are crossed and what one should be obliged to do and refrain from doing. These are, of course, very important matters, and deserve thorough consideration. But besides this almost restrictive side of scholarly ethics, there is also, I think, a vast idealistic dimension to ethics: awareness of the responsibility of science in society, and of the contribution that science can make to a better world. I was very happy to see that these matters are also addressed in your programme, and I hope that your conference will pay equal attention to both the high-minded and the restrictive side of ethics in science. I think that from experience you will agree with me that scientists are not particularly better or more noble people than anybody else, but that science as such is one of the most truly noble endeavours of mankind, and deserves a matching noblesse oblige. Thank you very much for being here: the Royal Netherlands Academy is proud to be your host, and I wish you an illuminating and inspiring conference. 9 10 Preface On 19-20 May 2005, a conference on science and ethics was held at the premises of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in Amsterdam under the title Common Values in the European Research Area: European Scientists and Scholars Meeting their Responsibility. The conference, nicknamed Amsterdam +8, was the follow-up to a similar 1997 conference on the subject European Science and Scientists between Freedom and Responsibility* at the same venue. Predictably, the 2005 conference reached consensus on certain issues, which allowed some conclusions to be formulated, although even more questions remained unanswered and even more problems unsolved. One of the more pertinent issues in respect of the latter is the multiplicity of moral convictions and ethical positions in Europe regarding a variety of key socio-political problems with which we are faced, and in which regard scientists and scholars are asked for advice and help. The European Union (its Council, Parliament and Commis- sion) is confronted with a plethora of competing moral positions with respect to many of these problems, thus hardly having any chance of achieving a consentaneous set of values and normative rules that would provide a way of addressing these problems.
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