Implicit moral premises of methodology of scientific research in medicine and biology - Some critical remarks

Morality of scientific research in biology and medicine is a well established enterprise. High moral standards of the protection of human beings participating in the research were designed many years ago. They have been continuously reviewed and amended - recent rephrasing of the Declaration of Helsinki may serve as an excellent example of this procedure. Moreover, various national and international bodies are doing tremendous work in setting and improving the standards of safeguarding rights and dignity of the subjects of scientific experiments. Different types of "moral watchdogs" are permanently doing their job with a great efficiency. Safety and moral integrity of human subjects of research is watched over, while cases of moral misconduct of researchers are indeed scarce and are punished with a due severity. The same applies to the laboratory animals. Everything looks great in this respect, and it seems that what remains to be done in this field is to achieve an absolute perfection. However, there are two thin but pretty important points in the "firewall" preventing from any kind of intentional or unintentional abuse of human subjects subdued to research that seem somehow weak. Paradoxically, these flaws are located neither in a procedural side of the research design, nor in its legal infrastructure, but in its scientific set-up. It is a scientific theory itself and a scientific methodology of research that may become sources of danger. To explain what it might mean, a concrete example is put under consideration in the paper: the research on the possible linkage between the X chromosome and male homosexual orientation. Analysis of various aspects of this example is provided and conclusions derived from it are used to support the thesis being put forward.