BUS 305 Ethics Case Study - Essay Example

Case Study Brief Summary The case chosen for this paper was “CASE STUDY OVERLY AMBITIOUS RESEARCHERS -- FABRICATING DATA” which tackled the issue of scientific miscounduct whereby researchers and scientist are manipulating and/or fabricating the data used in the research. The prominent example in the case was Dr. John Darsee’s case whereby he was observed labeling data recordings "24 seconds," "72 hours," "one week," and "two weeks when in reality only minutes had transpired. This prompted his mentor Braunwald to investigate his other research where some data were found to be fabricated also.

As a consequence, he lost his research position at Harvard along with the offer to become a faculty. He was also blacklisted for funding by The National Institutes of Health (NIH) for ten years.Issues Addressed There are three important issues that are worth discussing with Darsee case. To name, they are;What kinds of reasons are offered for fabricating data?The most common reason given by those who were caught fabricating data were the extreme pressure to complete the research either to keep with the expectation of supervisor, to meet a deadline, to get an article published and keep with the competition in the scientific community.

On a lower level among secondary students, common reasons given for fabricating data are related such the pressure of a limited time and to get good grade.Who is likely to be harmed by fabricating data? Does actual harm have to occur in order for fabrication to be ethically wrong?The end user of a scientific study will be the one who will harmed by a study with a fabricated data. This could be more damaging if such study were also used by other scientists to build their study on because they are being fed with data that lacks scientific integrity.

Students and researchers are also being harmed by a study with a fabricated data because they are basically studying an unproven scientific study due to its fraudulent methodology.Actual does not have to occur for a scientific study to be considered ethically wrong. The mere fact that it fabricated data, the research is no longer considered scientific because it violated the ethos of a research that makes a study scientific. In short, lying, whether it caused harm or not is always ethically wrong.

Why is honesty in scientific research important for the public?Ultimately, any research is aimed to better society and the general public. The general public consumes scientific research to educate itself, to widen its horizon and to ultimately better itself. When that general public is being fed with information which claims to be scientific but in fact is not, then there is a big problem because the public are studying things to better itself which do not have scientific integrity. Thus, it is important that a scientific research is done ethically not only for the sake of being religious to its methodology, but also in consideration to the general public who will take such study as scientific truth.