Emerging and Readily Available Technologies and National Security A Framework for Addressing Ethical, Legal, and Societal Issues (2014) / Chapter Skim
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4 Sources of ELSI Insight
4 Sources of ELSI Insight
Pages 115-162
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From page 115... ...
These sources include generalizable lessons arising from consideration of the science and technologies described in Chapters 2 and 3; philosophical ethics and existing disciplinary approaches to ethics; international law; social sciences such as anthropology and psychology; scientific and technological framing; the precautionary principle and cost-benefit analysis; and risk communication. The final section describes how these sources of insight might be used in practice.
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As a practical matter also, new situations provide antagonists with the opportunity to reopen old battles over ethical, legal, and societal issues, thus potentially upending previously reached compromises on controversial issues. In some cases, an R&D activity may be inherently suspect from an ELSI perspective.
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The above points are relevant especially in an environment of accumulating incremental change and improvement. Ethical, legal, and societal issues often become prominent when a new technology offers a great deal more operational capability than previous ones.
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present his or her point of view. 4.2 ETHICS 4.2.1 Philosophical Ethics Classically, Western moral philosophers have advanced two general kinds of moral theories that have proven useful in analyzing moral problems.
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A detailed examination of what various religions say about such matters is beyond the scope of this report, and thus apart from acknowledging that religion plays an important role in the formulation of answers, the role of any specific religion is not addressed in this report. Some relevant questions derived from philosophical ethics include the following: • On what basis can the benefits and costs of any given research effort be determined and weighed against each other, taking into account both the research itself and its foreseeable uses?
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For example, new theoretical orientations coming from communitarian ethics raise and address issues for which the moral theories described above are not seen to provide sufficient guidance.4 New subfields of ethics, specializing in practical and professional ethics, are now commonplace and address the issues and problems relevant to a particular area. Included among these subfields are biomedical ethics, engineering ethics, and information technology ethics, among others.
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5 Jay Katz, "The Consent Principle of the Nuremberg Code: Its Significance Then and Now," The Nazi Doctors and the Nuremberg Code: Human Rights in Human Experimentation, George J Annas and Michael A
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The development of in vitro fertilization in the 1970s and 1980s raised questions, for the first time, argued Alta Charo, about what was right and wrong regarding the manipulation of human embryos and about how to define personhood.10 In 1979, the first federal bioethics commission, the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, formalized the principles of bioethics articulated in the Belmont report (Box 4.1)
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This NIH-supported genetics ELSI research continues today. Questions of interest in biomedical ethics include the following: • How do standards for achieving informed consent change with different populations?
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In the case of health care and human subjects research, the principle obliges physicians and researchers to get informed consent, tell the truth, respect privacy, and only when asked help others to make important decisions. Discus sions in biomedical ethics around how to abide by this principle often focus on a few areas: evaluating capacity for making autonomous choices, the meanings and justifications of informed consent, disclosing information, ensuring voluntariness, and defining standards for surrogate decision making.
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Perhaps biomedical ethics was earliest to gain both scholarly and public interest; engineering and research ethics soon followed. Controversies concerning engineering catastrophes and research misconduct are likely to have fueled public demands and professional response.
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Ethical theory can provide useful conceptual clarification of the ethical dimensions of possible action. In addition, codes of ethics and other guidance concerning human development and human rights, from professional societies and national and international bodies, provided other resources, as did laws and other regulations.
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Some of the questions of interest in engineering ethics include the following: • How can the domain of professional engineering responsibility be legitimately circumscribed? Are there ethical commonalities covering all engineering fields, or is different field-specific guidance needed?
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For example, the ACM and IEEE-CS Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice calls on software engineers to commit themselves to the health, safety, and welfare of the public through adherence to eight principles14 -- acting consistently with the public interest; acting in a manner that is in the best interests of their client and employer consistent with the public interest; ensuring that their products and related modifications meet the highest professional standards possible; maintaining integrity and independence in their professional judgment; subscribing to and promoting an ethical approach to the management of software development and maintenance; advancing the integrity and reputation of the profession consistent with the public interest; being 13 Walter Maner, "Unique Ethical Problems in Information Technology," in Terrell Bynum and S Rogerson, eds., Science and Engineering Ethics 2(2)
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At its root, the nation-state arrangement means that international law governs relationships between sovereign states, and that individual states have exclusive jurisdiction over events and matters in their own territories. 15 SeeTerrell Ward Bynum, "Computer Ethics: Basic Concepts and Historical Overview," Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2001, available at http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/ win2001/entries/ethics-computer/.
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Over the centuries, international law has sought to adapt to changing patterns of armed conflict while retaining its fundamental principles. The rights accorded by national sovereignty have been increasingly challenged by such changes.
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For example, the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction is not a formal treaty;19 rather, it is a multilateral nonproliferation initiative created by the G-8 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Russia) in 2002 to support the implementation of arms control treaties and customary international law.
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The principle is relevant because it assumes that not using force or violence is the normative and preferred state of affairs, and that the use of force or violence is an unusual act that requires some justification. The set of ethical principles regarding justifications for using force or violence is known 20 The discussion of the law of armed conflict and of related material in this section is based largely on Brian Orend, "War," Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Fall 2008 Edition, Edward N
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is particularly important in this regard. Within the Western tradition of jus ad bellum and jus in bello, there are a number of ethical principles underlying how the international law of armed conflict has been formulated.
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According to the just-war theorists, individuals and other nonstate actors are not permitted to initiate war or armed conflict; only legitimate government authorities, acting in accordance with specified processes, can do so. In a technology development context, the principle might inhibit technology or applications that would facilitate nonstate initiation of armed conflict.
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Jus in Bello A premise of the law of armed conflict is that unnecessary human suffering during the course of conflict should be minimized even if violent conflict is inevitable from time to time. Again following Orend,23 jus in bello is also based on six principles: adherence to international law on the use (or nonuse)
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. Much of LOAC is still found in customary international law.
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The discussion above relates to international armed conflict -- armed conflict between nations. But international law also governs non-international armed conflict, which includes but is not limited to civil war.
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, through international human rights treaties (e.g., the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights) , or through customary international law.
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A relevant ethical question derived from considering international human rights law is the following: • How and to what extent, if any, do the research effort and the 27 See, for example, United Nations, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, available at http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/hr_law.shtml. 28 For a comparison between human rights law and the law of armed conflict, see Interna tional Committee on the Red Cross, "International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law: Similarities and Differences," 2003, available at http://www.ehl.icrc.org/ images/resources/pdf/ihl_and_ihrl.pdf and "What Is the Difference Between Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law?
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Halperin, Strategy and Arms Control, Pergamon Brassey's, Washington, D.C., 1985.
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Advances in science and technology can also provide positive benefits for arms control treaties. For example, new technology can improve national capabilities to monitor compliance with treaties, carry out inspections, or investigate allegations of controlled or prohibited activities.
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31 For example, see the State Department's "Innovation in Arms Control Challenge," which "sought creative ideas from the general public to use commonly available technologies to support arms control policy efforts." See http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ ps/2013/03/205617.htm.
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For example, as described above, the United States and many other nations codify some of their views of conflict through the law of armed conflict and arms control treaties such as the Chemical Weapons Convention. Of course, the fact that a nation may be party to an international agreement does not necessarily mean that members of its armed forces will always act in adherence to that agreement, or even that the nation itself will always comply with the requirements of the agreement.
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approach to armed conflict described in Chapter 1) , their use potentially violates fairness norms that are held by that adversary.
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If a suicide bomber is motivated by honor, a countermeasure might be turning such bombing into a dishonorable act.36 Cultural and societal issues also affect relationships with nations that are not overt adversaries. Such nations include long-term allies and allies of convenience and/or nonaligned nations.
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drone strikes, including such strikes in Pakistan.37 He acknowledged that "the United States is the first nation to regularly conduct strikes using remotely piloted aircraft in armed conflict." Because "many more nations are seeking" this technology and "more will succeed in acquiring it," Brennan argued, the United States is "establishing precedents that other nations may follow." "If we want other nations to use these technologies responsibly," Brennan stated, "we must use them responsibly. If we want other nations to adhere to high and rigorous standards for their use, then we must do so as well.
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, willingness to accept risks of different kinds, and how risk perceptions change, including on the basis of S&T developments.38 Risk analysis is relevant to the anticipation of ethical, legal, and societal issues as well.39 Predicting the impacts of a technology that is both complex and uncertain -- which generally characterizes analyses involving emerging technologies -- requires the disciplined use of expert judgment.40 Risk analysis provides a set of methods to assist in estimating the effects of complex, uncertain technologies (including both benefits and risks)
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43 Baruch Fischhoff, Risk Analysis and Human Behavior, Routledge/Earthscan, Oxford, 2011; Michael S Wogalter, The Handbook of Warnings, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, N.J., 2006.
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For example, in a review of the lessons of social psychology for understanding the virulent nationalism plaguing international politics in the years immediately after the Cold War, Druckman suggested: .
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For example, experiments have also shown that individuals are more willing to inflict pain on or otherwise abuse those who are not part of "their" group.48 How these fundamental aspects of human psychology play out in the context of conflict is addressed in the next section. Some of the questions derived from social psychology include the following: • When do attitudes toward a technology become a sacred value, so that groups support or oppose it as a matter of principle, indifferent to cost-benefit concerns?
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is denied commensurate control. Some of the questions derived from political psychology include the following: • When will a technology be politicized, with the result that attitudes and beliefs about it are determined by ideology rather than by scientific assessments (as has occurred with climate science and evolution, in some quarters)
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originally developed for operating manned vehicles, pointing to the need for TTPs for the use of unmanned ground vehicles that are specific to the tasks, features, and characteristics of those systems.52 • Passwords and cybersecurity. Authentication of an asserted identity is central to controlling access to information technology resources.
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To the extent that a given technology or application is based on an erroneous or an incomplete scientific understanding, any risk analysis of that technology or application will itself be incomplete. New ethical, legal, and societal issues may well emerge if and when the underlying science becomes more complete.
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A relevant ethical question derived from considering scientific framing is the following: • How and to what extent, if any, are known ethical, legal, and societal issues related to uncertainties in the underlying science or maturity of the technology? 4.6 THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE AND COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS Commentators differ in their psychological as well as social orientation toward technology development and application.
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Further, the principle often requires that precautionary measures be taken before any development work occurs, and such measures may include a complete cessation of all development work. Advocates of the precautionary principle often invoke ethical commitments to protect the environment from the results of humans' mistakes and to safeguard the public from terrorists.58 In the view of these critics, one of the biggest risks is that science and technology will move forward too quickly, causing irreversible damage.
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Some relevant ethical questions derived from considering cost-benefit analysis and the precautionary principle are the following: • How and to what extent, if any, can ELSI-related tensions between cost-benefit analysis and the precautionary principle be reconciled in any given research effort?
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Granger Morgan, Baruch Fischhoff, Ann Bostrom, and Cynthia J Atman, Risk Communication: A Mental Models Approach, Cambridge University Press, New York, 2001; Paul Slovic, The Perception of Risk, Earthscan, London, 2000; and Baruch Fischhoff, "Risk Perception and Communication," pp.
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.63 • Evaluating those messages until the audience reaches acceptable levels of understanding. • Developing in advance multiple channels of communication to the relevant audiences, including channels based on media contacts, opinion leaders, and Internet-based and more traditional social networks, and avoiding undue dependence on traditional media and public authorities for such communication.64 • Disclosing problematic ethical, legal, and societal issues earlier rather than later.
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• Persisting in such public engagements even over long periods of time.65 Achieving these goals typically requires a modest investment of resources, along with a strategic commitment to ensuring that critical audiences are informed -- and not blindsided.66 Nonetheless, the comments above should not be taken to mean that the process of risk communication is an easy one. Some of the important issues that arise in crafting an appropriate strategy for risk communication include the following: • Identifying stakeholders and social networks.
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Research addressing the role of new and emerging media in risk communication processes is in its infancy, but research might be conducted on media effects, uses, the spread of information 69 Charles Salmon and Charles Atkin, "Using Media Campaigns for Health Promotion," pp. 263-284 in Handbook of Health Communication, T.L.
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Some of the questions derived from risk communication include the following: • How can technology developers communicate the risks and benefits of technologies to the American public, so as to ensure a fair judgment, without revealing properties that would aid U.S. adversaries?
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For example, philosophical ethics -- suitably elaborated -- is in part a basis for disciplinary ethics and law. Differences between the precautionary principle and cost-benefit analysis mirror distinctions between deontology and consequentialism.
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