Autore
Gasparri, Wladimiro

Titolo
Libertà di scienza, ricerca biomedica e comitati etici. L'organizzazione amministrativa della sperimentazione clinica dei farmaci
Periodico
Diritto pubblico
Anno: 2012 - Fascicolo: 2 - Pagina iniziale: 501 - Pagina finale: 598

In the presence of a science and technology characterized by the indefinite increaseof the capacity to realize new purposes, a question tied to the complex relationbetween science, technology and society arises ever increasingly more often:Is scientific research (its aims, the manner in which it is performed, its acquisitionsand its applications) in itself neutral and therefore free to be carried on inany direction, or is it necessary to make scientific inquiry subject to an assessmenton the strength of the irrepressible link between freedom of science and safeguardingof the person? And, in the second case, what might be the instruments(including organizational) to ensure the proper balancing of scientific freedomwith the need to guarantee basic personal rights? These questions are all the morecogent in a context highly conditioned by the logic of the market, tied to the privateappropriation of knowledge as a conformational factor of scientific inquiryitself, in which development 'does not derive from the technology per se' and,therefore, innovation is not dictated just by a limitless utilization of freedom ofresearch and the power of technology, but penetrates into society, above all inthe name of the will to make possible the maximum commercial use of innovation.It is along this borderline that the freedom of science and of knowledge sometimesends up being questioned as one of the fundamental values of the individual,notwithstanding the constitutional guarantees with which it is surrounded(articles 9 and 33 of the Constitution). This question concerns biomedical researchin an even more pronounced form owing to the immediate link with clinicaltesting and practice. The question of whether a regulation of science is imaginableand what might be the ambit thereof is posed again in this case in an immediatemanner: What might be the public interests susceptible to such protectionto be placed efficaciously as counter limits of a freedom so profoundly connectedwith the constitutional system? Can the need to prevent damage or harm, concretelylikely, to others constitute the principle for limiting or abolishing the independenceand freedom of the scientist and, therefore, his power of decision?What might be the organizational forms and procedures suitable for defining thesecounter limits in concrete terms? Through the analysis of the subjective profilesof biomedical research (the procedures for verification of the adequacy of theresearch scheme as necessary organizational modalities between self-regulationand normative regulation and the guarantees of the subjects involved in experimentationand consent in experimentation) and of the administrative organizationof the same research (with particular reference to the regulation of ethicscommittees) the work reaches the conclusion that it seems the regulation of'dubious' science and, therefore, the conformation of the single decisions cannotbe entrusted to the acceptance of super principles, the nature and content of whichand those to whom they are addressed may change depending on variables difficultto foresee or control, as such able to bear a priori on the lawfulness of scienceto explore everything possible. It seems that regulation, to the extent to whichit appears configurable and admissible, will have to be tied, first of all, to agreedprocedures for preliminary scientific risk assessment, able to allow a rational decisionin conditions of uncertainty concerning the future state of things.



SICI: 1721-8985(2012)2<501:LDSRBE>2.0.ZU;2-7
Testo completo: http://www.mulino.it/download/article/10.1438/72679
Testo completo alternativo: http://www.mulino.it/doi/10.1438/72679

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