From Critique to Responsibility: The Ethical Turn in the Technology Debate

Abstract

In recent years Dutch media have shown a rapid increase in interest in the ethical aspects of technological developments. The genetic manipulation of animals and plants and the cloning of animals caused heated arguments about the question whether technology can be allowed to intervene in the design of life itself. According to many the patenting of live organisms is fundamentally wrong. Mad cows and plagued pigs have been taken as signs that our bio-industry has lost all sense of moral direction. In the medical sphere, technological progress confronts people with hitherto unknown moral dilemmas: Is abortion defensible in the case of severely handicapped fetuses? Should everything that is technologically possible actually be done? Are we investing too much in spectacular medical high-tech and too little in relatively dull, but nonetheless essential, forms of daycare? And so on. Computers lead to their own moral questions, ranging from privacy-infringements to the shamelessly aggressive and sexist character of many computer games. And these are only a few of the many examples of the moral issues around technology which in recent years have become the topic of extensive public debate.