Sciences Fail to Give Ethics

Harvard's science courses fail to provide students with the ethical and moral basis they need to responsibly assume their duties as scientists, Professor of History of Science Everett I. Mendelsohn said at an open discussion on the ethical responsibilities of science yesterday.

"I feel the University's approach technically trains the student to be a good scientist, but has basically left the student on his own as what to do with that knowledge," Mendelsohn told about 30 students in the Union last night.

The informal discussion was the first meeting of the newly-formed Harvard Committee on Science, Technology and Society. A group of students created the committee earlier this fall to promote awareness of the ethical and the social implications of science and technology.

"My concern is that, in our endeavor to update our science curriculum and make it strong at a technical level, we've done it at the cost of the young scientists' thinking about the moral issues confronting them in their fields," Mendelsohn said.

As a remedy, he proposed that students should attend discussions in which members of the Biology, Chemistry and Physics Departments would address these type of questions.

One of the founding members of the committee Alan Z. Segal '89 said, "I never expected so many people to come. I think that the fact that many people showed up really reflects the importance of this type of issues to students of many different disciplines."