Scientific fraud kills people — but it’s not illegal. What should be done?

[O]ne of the cases was when a woman delivered a stillborn baby at her home about six or seven months into pregnancy. Bach said that when the woman went to make funeral arrangements, the funeral home alerted authorities and the woman was charged with homicide.

Unfortunately, fraud and misconduct in the scientific community [aren’t] nearly as rare as one might like to believe. [T]he consequences of being caught are frequently underwhelming…. Sometimes, scientists alleged to have falsified their data file frivolous lawsuits against their peers who point it out, further silencing anyone who would speak out about bad data. [T]his behavior can have high stakes, and can dramatically affect treatment options for patients.

In cases where research dishonesty is literally killing people, shouldn’t it be appropriate to resort to the criminal justice system?

In some ways, a legal statute isn’t the ideal solution. Courts are [not] well suited to answering detailed scientific questions and would almost certainly be relying on scientific institutions that conduct investigations…. But in sufficiently severe cases of misconduct, it does seem … that it’d be a major advantage to have an institution outside academia at work on getting to the bottom of these cases. If well designed, a statute that allowed prosecution for scientific fraud could shift the overwhelming incentives to let misconduct go unpunished and move on.

This is an excerpt. Read the original post here