Ethical Engineering: Definitions, Theories and Techniques - Ethical Engineering for International Development and Environmental Sustainability - page 23

bodies may be inadequate in ethical terms. The high degree of uncertainty in evalu-
ating the risk associated with many new technologies also raises ethical questions.
Particular examples include nuclear energy and genetically modifi ed foods. Both
these examples can be considered social experiments with unknown outcomes
and possibly unforeseeable long-term consequences, making the use of the precau-
tionary principle appropriate.
Another important issue is that of dissenting minorities. Responsible experimenta-
tion would require informed consent by all participants. This raises ethical problems
in the case of, for instance, particular energy technologies, where it may not be possible
for dissenting or concerned individuals to opt out.
The implications of the ethics of experimentation for assistive technology
research include the following:

1. The importance of involving disabled people in the development of new assistive
technology products, as part of the ethical responsibility for ensuring that the
resulting devices do meet the needs of the group of disabled people they have
been designed for and are likely to enhance their lifestyles.
2. Recognition that new assistive technologies can have unexpected and unforeseen
consequences on the lives and social relationships of disabled people and their
families and friends and personal assistants. There is an ethical responsibility to
take these unexpected consequences into consideration.
3. The importance of not pressurising groups of disabled people to participate in
questions or user studies on new assistive devices.

2.2.1.3 Human-Centred Ethics

Human-centred ethics focuses on people fi rst with the organisation and technology
in the second and third places and on the needs of individuals and groups rather than
those of vested interests and power structures. Human-centred ethics is related to
human-centred systems which are based on the social structures that surround the
work and information being used by the individual (Hersh et al. 2005 ) and are
designed to complement the skills of the user (Kling and Star 1998 ). Introducing new
technologies can have a profound effect on an organisation or even a whole society
(Hersh et al. 2005 ). This requires human-centred approaches in which decisions
about both whether the technology is introduced and, if this is agreed, the process by
which it is introduced are based on human requirements, and it is possible to refuse
it rather than feeling compelled by technological determinism (Ellul 1954 ; Winner
1977 ) or power structures and vested interests (Stapleton and Hersh 2003 ).
The following two principles of Kant's ( 1792 , 1818 ) categorical imperative
are very relevant to human-centred ethics: (1) treating other people as 'ends in
themselves' rather than 'means', i.e. recognising that they have their own needs and
are not tools to be exploited, and (2) acting as a member of a community where all
the other members are also 'ends'.