Italian Scientists Convicted of Manslaughter

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/23/world/europe/italy-quake-scientists-guilty/index.html?npt=NP1

Six Italian scientists were convicted of manslaughter for failing to predict the deadly 6.3 L’Aquila earthquake that killed more than 300 people. Earthquake experts worldwide are shocked about these convictions. Two scientists resigned their post with the government’s disaster agency after six scientists and a government official to six years in prison. The court in L’Aquila that decided this ruled that the scientists failed to accurately communicate the risk of the 2009 quake. Lots of personnel involved in earthquake prediction either resigned or quit their jobs because of the sentencing. Italy’s Civil Protection Agency announced that Luciano Maiani, the physicist who led the National Commission for the Prediction and Prevention of Major Risks, resigned in protest of the verdict. Another statement form the agency: Mauro Dolce quit as director of the office that monitors volcano and earthquake threats. "To predict a large quake on the basis of a relatively commonplace sequence of small earthquakes and to advise the local population to flee" would constitute "both bad science and bad public policy," said David Oglesby, an associate professor in the Earth sciences faculty of the University of California, Riverside. "If scientists can be held personally and legally responsible for situations where predictions don't pan out, then it will be very hard to find scientists to stick their necks out in the future," Oglesby said in a statement. Prosecutors argued that the scientist gave “inaccurate, incomplete and contradictory information about the dangers” of the quake. The experts thought that it was “unlikely” but still possible that a major quake would take place in L’Aquila where small earthquakes commonly occur. The court agreed, finding the six scientists from the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology and a member of the Civil Protection Agency guilty and ordering Italian authorities to pay $10 million in damages. Outsider’s thoughts about this situation express their fear about the future that mistakes can lead to time in prison.

Opinion

I chose this article this week because it contradicts civil rights but also correlated with what were are discussing in class in regards to the causes of incarceration globally. It is very ironic those scientists who are valued and typically respected are being sentenced to six years in prison for a mistake they made. One could argue that some of the scientific discoveries that we know of today were made by mistakes that were made during the experimentation process. Now scientists are being penalized for their mistakes and that is against their human rights. I understand that it was a big mistake with 300 lives lost but accusing scientist of manslaughter is a ridiculous ruling. No one can place the blame on anyone for natural disasters because it is nature that causes the destruction.  Convicting people for catastrophe does not help the situation but only hurts the future of science. This court case is really going to affect the future of the science world because now experts will be fearful when disclosing their opinions. Science is never accurate one hundred percent of the time therefore it is not fair for scientist to be blamed for not making the correct predictions one hundred percent of the time. Hopefully this court case will be appealed and the Italian Civil Rights Agency can protect the rights of these scientists because they are not to blame for this natural disaster.