Question

• Looking at the impact of technology (computers, the Internet, smartphones, etc.) on American society, how has modern technology impacted people's views on ethics?
• Has the view of what is right or wrong in American culture changed in the last 20 years as a result of people's increased use of information technologies?

Answer 1

Ethics defined -

When we reflect on the judgments we make, we should be able to agree on some basic principles of ethics or disagree on particular applications of those principles in different circumstances. For example, from an ethical viewpoint, we ought to be able to accept that the interests of all people are equal. My interests don't count for more than those of others elsewhere, provided similar interests are at stake. If we assume a given disease causes similar suffering in humans everywhere, then I think we can agree we should give equal weight to each patient suffering from it, irrespective of other differences.

That idea is reflected in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international covenants. Ethics is not a matter of taste; it is a self-evident truth akin to the reasoning of mathematics or logic. Therefore, ethics is a matter on which there are objectively right and wrong answers.

Ethics and intellectual property rights -

When it comes to intellectual property (IP) rights, the utilitarian perspective encourages innovation and creation for the benefit of all. There is, however, an alternative view that says property rights, including IP rights, are inherently natural rights, and that it is wrong to deprive people holding those rights of the things that they have a right to, independent of the consequences. Less well known, however, is that within the natural law tradition, there are limits to those natural rights with respect to property. For example, if somebody, of necessity – because they are starving – takes something from someone who has abundance – a loaf of bread, for example – that is not theft because that natural law theory of property rights states that these rights exist in order to enable us to satisfy our needs. When those rights interfere with meeting our basic needs, they no longer hold.

Now, when we apply that to the use of IP in relation to the medicines needed to treat people who cannot afford them, for example, that could result in a doctrine that justifies the production of generic versions of patent-protected drugs for these patients in poor countries. There are, in accordance with this view, provisions in international agreements like the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) that allow governments to give permission to produce generic versions of patented drugs (under what is known as a compulsory license) in specific situations. Such an approach can be defended, both from a utilitarian perspective and a natural law defense of property rights.

The utilitarian perspective, which takes a long-term view, gives more importance to the right to patent protection, whereas the natural law view focuses on the immediate needs of the person who will die without the drug. The natural law view says nothing about the future generations who will benefit from the development of new drugs that we don't yet have, and which may only be developed if pharmaceutical companies believe they have sufficient financial incentives to develop them.

When tackling global health challenges, we need to take that long-term view, while also recognizing we need to find ways to make life-saving drugs available to those who need them. And we need to avoid situations where effective drugs are available in affluent countries but are unaffordable for developing nations.

Technology and bioethics -

In the 1950s, the invention of the respirator made it possible to keep patients alive who were unable to breathe unaided. It continues to save lives of patients who, after a short time, recover completely. That's wonderful. But what about patients that never recover consciousness or the ability to breathe unaided? That posed an ethical problem; one that became even more acute in the 1960s, when Dr. Christiaan Barnard demonstrated the life-saving potential of transplanting a heart from one patient to another. What should we do with patients on respirators who show no brain response and will never recover consciousness? Do we keep them on the respirator for the rest of their natural lives or do we turn it off and allow them to die?

Our response was to change how we define death. Up to that point, a person was legally dead when their heart, respiration and pulse stopped. We simply added irreversible cessation of all brain function to that definition. That made it possible to declare some of the patients on respirators legally dead. But more importantly, it meant we could remove the organs of patients on life-support while their heart was still beating and use them to save other lives. If these patients were living, that would be directly contrary to the Kantian idea that we should never use a human to serve the ends of others. We avoided that by changing the definition of death. That change in definition was not the outcome of any scientific discovery. It was a policy choice. But it is extraordinary that there was so little opposition to it at the time, even if it remains a topic of discussion.

Then, in the 1970s, in vitro fertilization was developed. In vitro fertilization has been successful in helping infertile couples have children. It also made it possible to produce a viable embryo outside the human body and to transfer it to a woman with no genetic link to that embryo. It meant that a woman who wanted a child but was unable to produce any eggs could now have one. It also meant that a woman could offer her womb for hire as a paid surrogate. There is already a certain level of international business in this area, and that is ethically questionable. But perhaps the more important issue for the future of humanity is what we can do with viable embryos produced outside the body in terms of genetic screening and modification.

Pre-natal genetic screening and selection to detect certain diseases that may result in terminating a pregnancy is commonplace. Another method of achieving the same outcome is for women at high risk of having a child with a genetic abnormality to undergo in vitro fertilization. After taking drugs to produce multiple eggs, which are then fertilized, the resulting embryos are screened and a healthy embryo is transferred to the woman, eliminating any risk of termination and enabling her to bear a child free from disease.

That, in itself, is not particularly controversial. But as our knowledge of genetics advances we are also going to find better-than-average genes, and it is not difficult to imagine couples will want to screen embryos for a child with the characteristics they want. What sort of future might this lead to? One could imagine the emergence of a genetic class structure, a genetic aristocracy and proletariat, where individuals – and indeed countries – use genetics for improved intelligence, for example, to secure a competitive advantage in the world. Do we want to move away from the rather limited but still significant mobility that exists between classes today? And if we decide not to prohibit the use of genetic technology in this way, how should it be made accessible and regulated? We need to think about these things.

Moreover, in the next decade, it is quite possible that with CRISPR gene-editing technology, we will be able to modify embryos. If that proves safe and reliable – which is still in doubt – it is likely to lead to a modified kind of human nature. I don't regard that as intrinsically wrong. Human nature and our genetic make-up have evolved to help us survive. We shouldn't assume that evolution is guided by some kind of providence to reach the best ethical outcomes. We could imagine better outcomes: more intelligent, altruistic and compassionate humans, for example. Maybe that's what we need to do to protect the future of humanity.

Ethical issues with technology related to ethical dilemmas -

Ethical dilemmas arise when there are competing goods and competing evils. Regarding IT, the sharing of private information within an organization raises the question of whether the action is moral or immoral. Companies can collect information about individuals using computer programs and even use the information for their benefit without morality.

Information systems enable people to manipulate records within a short period, thus raising questions on whether the information is genuine or vague. Moreover, will genetic engineering improve the quality of life or destroy it? These are some ethical dilemmas that are yet to be solved.

Furthermore, biotechnology raises some moral issues. It is difficult to justify the use of living organisms during research and other technological discoveries. For instance, vitro fertilization enables women who are not in a position to have their children to undergo the process. Religious groups are opposed to such practices because their beliefs do not agree with them.

Ethical implications on people’s health -

The uses of technology have the capability of making many innocent people suffer, and this is a moral concern. An example of such issue can be the fact that nuclear technology has the potential of killing many people and consequently destroying the environment. This issue raises some health problems.

People affected by nuclear emissions, such as those witnessed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, are deemed to be genetically impaired. Such effects can impact the next generations of affected individuals. The use of computers also raises health issues. Even though machines make our work more comfortable, it is evident that prolonged use of computers results in repetitive stress injuries.

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