POLL: Should Scientists Face Criminal Charges for Wrong Predictions?
Six Italian scientists have gotten six years in prison for downplaying the risk of an earthquake in 2009.
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Six Italian scientists and one ex-government official have been sentenced to six years in prison for multiple manslaughter due to an announcement assuring people that a large eartquake would not occur six days before a 2009 quake that killed over 300 people.
309 people were killed in the L'Aquila earthquake on April 6, 2009, which registered as a 6.3 on the Richter Scale. According to the BBC, a witness for the prosecution said her father would have left the city and survived the quake were it not for the announcement made by the National Commission for the Forecast and Prevention of Major Risks, downplaying the risk of a quake.
Should scientists face criminal responsibility if they get it wrong? Tell us in the comments!
Scientists around the world have blasted the verdict, claiming that earthquakes are inherently unpredictable and that this case was putting science itself on trial.
"If the scientific community is to be penalised for making predictions that turn out to be incorrect, or for not accurately predicting an event that subsequently occurs, then scientific endeavour will be restricted to certainties only and the benefits that are associated with findings from medicine to physics will be stalled," Malcolm Sperrin, director of medical physics at the UK's Royal Berkshire Hospital told the BBC.
Gayla
12:42 pm on Wednesday, October 24, 2012
MOST people have common sense and should be held accountable for their own actions. If you have been told that there is "something" on the horizon that could be bad (or not) one must decide for themselves what action to take if any and not blame the "predictor"...Do we blame the weatherman every time he/she is wrong?
KELLI
10:01 pm on Wednesday, October 24, 2012
If this is how you take a survey I can understand why all the survey and polls are inacurate !!! ....The wording in this poll/survey is totally misleading !!!
IT SAYS THIS: If a scientist makes a prediction that causes someone to lose their life, should the scientist be criminally liable?
The facts are as follows: The scientists had information that the quakes were escalating - not deminishing... therefore they should have warned the residents of that town and I fully agree that they (scientists AND city leaders)....
The residents of that historic town kept asking if they should take precautions, move out or whatever and each time they were told NO....
NADA ABDALLA
12:05 pm on Sunday, November 4, 2012
it's really hard to ans this question because of 2 opposite reasons...
some governments avoid announcing such things to avoid any local chaos, and some scientists as well announce that no tragedy will happen as if they are %100 sure, and then an earthquake occur for example ... what they should have done is to give a percentage of their prediction...
And that's why i think i cannot ans. your question, i see a lot of consequences
and i loved your question :)