Korean scientific ethics, part 2
by James Na ~ December 16th, 2005. Filed under: Uncategorized.Earlier I wrote about Dr. Hwang Woo-suk and what he exemplifies about the modern South Korean society.
Now even the NYT is waking up to Dr. Hwang’s fraud, which keeps unraveling.
This is what you get when science is divorced from morality. To repeat:
First of all, no human endeavor of any kind is its own world unto itself. Just as church sex abuse isn’t just a religious matter, but a matter of law for the society at large, ethical lapses in the scientific world aren’t just scientific issues, they are also about the morality of the society at large.
[Update: WaPo is on it too.]
December 16th, 2005 at 12:18 pm
It’s your own business to post whatever you want to, and it’s the “professional-characteristic” tendency of journalism to slant the news to the one side or the other, to your advantage. But the “fact” is uncovered, not the truth for now, which is– I myself have no mind to deny for any good reason — that the stem cell paper published in the journal Science was indeed fabricated. (Or rather I want to believe it was a serious, unrecoverable mistake.)
But question of the truth, knowing of which I know is none of your business, still remains as to who did it and why- don’t jump to the conclusion that you already know it all…cuz it only shows the the “pathetic” pretense of professional journalism, part of which you may be.
I don’t think you built this blog just in order to hawk your views, but please turn around and look at yourself reflected in the mirror every time you reproach others for their ethics. There will be nothing “remotely resembling” your own then.
I can help but want to show my compassion for you, your profession as a journalist and America at large, quoting:
” Instead of considering the editor of a newspaper as an abstraction, with no motive in view but that of maintaining principles and disseminating facts, it is necessary to remember that he is a man, with all the interests and passions of one who has chosen this means to advance his fortunes, and, of course, with all the accompanying temptations to abuse his opportunities, and this too, usually, with the additional drawback of being a partisan in politics, religion or literature…”
The stem cell case is not over yet. Just watch and enjoy yourself.
December 19th, 2005 at 5:03 am
You are one confused individual.
I don’t think you built this blog just in order to hawk your views…
Actually that is EXACTLY why I built this blog. To share my views with the rest of the world (it’s not “hawking,” because that would require I sell the material for some pecuniary gain through this blog; it’s free, you know — I only charge The Seattle Times occasionally for my thoughts, and not very much at that).
I can help but want to show my compassion for you, your profession as a journalist and America at large…
Well, I can’t speak for “America at large,” but I consider it an insult to be called “a journalist.”
I have never been a journalist. I am not one now. Guess I don’t need your “compassion.” Now go back to the hole from which you emerged.