2.Scientists and other researchers should focus their research on areas that are likely to benefit the greatest number of people

To limit the researchers only to be active on the subjects that benefit the greatest majority of the people, as the statement above recommends, cannot be tenable. The statement tacitly recommends this at the expense of not taking the minorities needs into account. I found this recommendation gravely flawed in the several respects.

To begin with, No matter it is the majorities or the minorities who benefit from a line of a research, the researcher should follow the line of research which he/she is interested in. The reason is that a line of research cannot certainly assure us whether it would be beneficial for the majority of people or it will benefit the minorities, but it is the interest of the researcher which certainly enables him or her to achieve effective results.

Consider the Radiography. This method of diagnosis which nearly every human being derive multitude benefits from it, emerges from an accidental experiment. When Henri Becquerel was working on the phosphorescence of the particular materials, he was primarily aimed to meet his own interests. Then, he accidentally came to the uranium salts and radioactivity. Therefore, as the result of all research is not predictable, we cannot confine them to some fields which are likely to benefit the greatest number of people.

Now coming to the ignoring the minorities, we should keep in mind that the inception of the many overarching problems takes place in the minorities, and even for the sake of majorities, sometimes we need to care for the minorities. The researchers usually do not take the issues seriously until the problem spreads to the masses and becomes a crisis. Consider the Aids disease. Should the researchers paid enough attention to such a disease when it was in smaller populations, prior its outbreak, lesser price would have been paid back then by the societies to fight this disease.

Finally, no matter how many would benefit, even if it is the life of just one human being which can be positively affected by a research, it is legitimate to conduct any research in favor of the very person. For instance, take motor neuron disease. The frequency of such an ailment is 2 in 100000 people, so it is a rare diseases. Beholden to the researches, one of the patient of this disease, Stephen Hawking, has a prolonged life and has made breakthroughs in physics, which directly or indirectly, benefit every single human being on the earth. Hence, even helping one individual can lead to the benefits of billions of people.

In short, regardless of what percentage of people would benefit from the results of a research, researches should follow a line of research which interests them. Moreover, it is _not_ advisable when in our researches we can help even a tiny fraction of the population, we do not take any step.