For those who carried out their scientific activity in the second half of the 20^th century, the equilibrium in the relations between individual, science and society were shaken by very important changes in the ethical consideration of scientific endeavor.

Facing the great advances achieved, the enormous increment of scientific and technological knowledge and its bibliographic lot, and the speed and reach achieved in the diffusion of such advances, those changes in the relevance of ethical aspects passed unnoticed by many.

Mankind was shaken by events almost unconceivable, and certainly incredible, that made it conscious of such ethical dimension. Two events that took place in the decade of 1940 set the change of direction: the unheard attitude of the nazis of massive extermination and disgusting experiments on humans, and the atomic bombs dropped on civilian populations carried out by the allies.

But much more has happened. Biotechnology and molecular genetics have opened new frontiers and possibilities unthought of before. The perspective of radical changes in the distribution of species and their control, including humans, surpassed the worries about an inappropriate use of punctual research results. Outside the laboratories, the progressive and irreversible destruction of nature and its resources, the finding of climatic changes that point to an uncertain future for life as we know it and the restrictions imposed by market protection mechanisms are new scenarios that arouse uneasiness due to its ethical aspects.

It is not only a matter of faulty behavior due to plagiarism or alteration of results, which are not uncommon, but also of situations derived from research and knowledge that lead to unknown or unsuspected consequences that can reach up to massive destruction.

The concern has always existed, but it is in recent times when people have begun to insist in an ethics of science and to consider it in political, educational, institutional and other areas. Ethics is not a novel addition to science, but it is imbued in the scientific research itself; it not only attempts to clarify the moral values behind the activity, but sustains its public discussion, the new dialogue between science, industry and society. It involves the social responsibilities of science and, finally, the governability of science and technology.

Although all those involved in the formulation and execution of science and technology policies have their share of responsibility, those who possess more and closer knowledge about the benefits and dangers of a given aspect of the application of scientific and technological achievements have an additional and special responsibility to use such perception. The ethical responsibility of the researcher is a primary one. This responsibility is not large or small… it is permanent, because knowledge implies moral co-responsibility.

In the last decades, advisory bioethical committees have been established all over our region, at international, national and even institutional level. Bioethics was a subject of legislation. Bioethics laws and committees took care of protecting people subjected to medical research, establishing rules for animal experimentation, advising in controversial topics in medical practice, specially those concerning euthanasia, and analyzing problems relating to research in genetics and human reproduction.

But nowadays the ethical aspects of science and technology reach much further than problems of a medical nature, involving all fields of scientific knowledge, its relations to society and its responsibility towards the latter.

For that reason, the last decade has seen the establishment of committees on ethics in science and technology at international, national or local levels, with a much wider vision than that of the former bioethics committees. The ethics of science go beyond people and medical research, it includes the environment and all its components, that is, life on our planet, which includes the preservation of biodiversity, and also touches upon the peaceful use of the achievements of science and technology.

The solution of the ethical dilemmas of science cannot be reached through the establishment of committees, rules and codes. It implies a true comprehension, by all the actors, of the effects and consequences of scientific findings. It is appropriate to remember that while we know more, we ignore more about reality, and also about the consequences of what we know.

Miguel Laufer

Interciencia