Ethical, Legal, and Technical Issues of Biohistorical Research

生物历史研究的伦理、法律和技术问题

• 批准号: 0134850
• 负责人: Lori Andrews
• 金额: $ 15.46万
• 依托单位: Illinois Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2002
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2002-05-01 至 2005-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0134850&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Ethical; Legal; Technical; Issues; Biohistorical

Advances in science and technology give scholars and institutions new means of undertaking research on historical figures and historical artifacts. Techniques of bio-analysis commonly used in medicine and forensics, such as DNA testing or biochemical assays, are now being applied to answer historical questions. Recent proposals for bio-historical investigations of scientist Albert Einstein, explorer Meriwether Lewis, and presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln have generated scientific, historical, ethical, and legal controversies. The Institute for Science, Law, and Technology (ISLAT) at the Illinois Institute of Technology and the Chicago Historical Society (CHS) coordinate a collaborative investigation to develop ethical guidelines for the emerging field of bio-historical research. The project fosters interdisciplinary academic partnerships between specialists in bioethics, science, law, social science, history, and museology. The researchers investigate the reasons bio-analysis has been used, and might be used in the historical context, and the scientific, legal, ethical and social concerns raised by bio-analysis. The project examines pplicable existing guidelines for professional organizations of historians, anthropologists, museum curators, survey researchers, epidemiologists, pathologists, geneticists, forensic scientists, archeologists, and sociologists. They also analyze ethical and legal precedents such as those governing informed consent, privacy, respect for the dead, duties of museum curators, access to information about historical figures, contracts between donors and museums, and access to body tissue. Building on this research, ethical guidelines for bio-historical analysis will be developed for use on tissue samples (such as hair, blood, or bones) from figures of historical interest. Such guidelines are useful to geneticists, chemists, forensic scientists, and others who are requested to test such artifacts; and to foundations, government agencies, and others asked to fund such analyses. The draft guidelines will be posted on the Chicago Historical Society's Internet site, submitted to professional organizations for written comments, and presented at selected conferences for discussion. The principal investigators will incorporate this comprehensive feedback in the final draft of the guidelines that will be published in various academic and professional journals.

科学技术的进步为学者和机构研究历史人物和历史文物提供了新的手段。通常用于医学和法医学的生物分析技术，如DNA测试或生化分析，现在正被应用于回答历史问题。最近关于科学家阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦、探险家梅里韦瑟·刘易斯、总统乔治·华盛顿、托马斯·杰斐逊和亚伯拉罕·林肯的生物历史调查的提议在科学、历史、伦理和法律上都引起了争议。伊利诺斯理工学院的科学、法律和技术研究所（ISLAT）和芝加哥历史学会（CHS）协调了一项合作调查，为生物历史研究这一新兴领域制定伦理准则。该项目促进了生物伦理学、科学、法律、社会科学、历史和博物馆学专家之间的跨学科学术伙伴关系。研究人员调查了生物分析被使用的原因，以及在历史背景下可能被使用的原因，以及生物分析引起的科学、法律、伦理和社会问题。该项目为历史学家、人类学家、博物馆馆长、调查研究人员、流行病学家、病理学家、遗传学家、法医学家、考古学家和社会学家等专业组织审查适用的现有指南。他们还分析了伦理和法律先例，比如那些关于知情同意、隐私、对死者的尊重、博物馆馆长的职责、对历史人物信息的获取、捐赠者和博物馆之间的合同以及对尸体组织的获取。在这项研究的基础上，将制定生物历史分析的伦理准则，用于历史人物的组织样本（如头发、血液或骨骼）。这些指导方针对遗传学家、化学家、法医科学家和其他被要求测试此类人工制品的人很有用；以及基金会、政府机构和其他要求资助此类分析的机构。该指南草案将被发布在芝加哥历史学会的网站上，提交给专业组织征求书面意见，并在选定的会议上进行讨论。主要研究人员将把这些全面的反馈纳入指南的最终草案，并将在各种学术和专业期刊上发表。