The Many Ethical Implications of Emerging Technologies
By Nayef Al-Rodhan,
Scientific American
| 03. 13. 2015
Untitled Document
In the past four decades technology has fundamentally altered our lives: from the way we work to how we communicate to how we fight wars. These technologies have not been without controversy, and many have sparked intense debates that are often polarized or embroiled in scientific ambiguities or dishonest demagoguery.
The debate on stem cells and embryo research, for example, has become a hot-button political issue involving scientists, policy makers, politicians and religious groups. Similarly, the discussions on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have mobilized civil society, scientists and policy makers in a wide debate on ethics and safety. The developments in genome-editing technologies are just one example that bioresearch and its impact on market goods are strongly dependent on social acceptance and cannot escape public debates of regulation and ethics. Moreover, requests for transparency are increasingly central to these debates, as shown by movements like Right to Know, which has repeatedly demanded the labeling of GMOs on food products.
Ethical and regulatory challenges
On March 4 the World Economic Forum released its list of the top...
Related Articles
By Rachel Clayton, ABC News | 07.08.2024
In her early 30s, Michelle Galea wasn't convinced motherhood was for her.
"I didn't know if I wanted a child or if society was telling me I should have a child right now," she said.
But as she watched two...
By Shivam Jadaun and Shivani, JURISTnews | 06.27.2024
Image by European Council from Flickr
In some European Union nations, the forced sterilisation of people with disabilities is still a widespread and concerning practice that blatantly violates their fundamental rights and human dignity. The scope of forced sterilisation in...
By Miri (Margaret) Raven, Alana Gall, Bibi Barba, and Daniel Robinson, The Conversation | 06.02.2024
Image by Ahmet Kurt from Unsplash
Last week, at a conference in Geneva, the member states of the World Intellectual Property Organisation agreed on a new treaty aimed at preventing the for-profit piracy of traditional knowledge.
So-called “biopiracy”, in...
By Osagie K. Obasogie, L.A. Review of Books | 04.17.2024
When Robert G. Edwards won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2010 for developing in vitro fertilization (IVF) decades earlier in 1978, many members of the scientific community sighed in relief. This honor, they felt, was long...