5 ms·
I wonder if I'm the only one here who thinks this probably a good thing, from a utilitarian ethics. My calculation goes like this: Most of the things we get up
by alexandercrohde 8y ago
I wonder if I'm the only one here who thinks this probably a good thing, from a utilitarian ethics.
My calculation goes like this: Most of the things we get up-in-arms today about aren't that bad numerically. When those come our science is the ONLY thing that can save us (be that mars, be that a preventative technology, be a genetic adaptation).
I think if we handwring over the ethics of individual testing for decades on end, all-the-while millions die because of the technology we didn't build then, by a utilitarian ethics at least, that was a bad call.
- asituop 8y agoI'm not sure to understand are you basically saying " it's okay to do human testing because we can save million of others " ? The whole point of "civilized" countries is to guarantee some basic individual rights by not fall into this pure utilitarian vision. Otherwise you can justify all the most dystopian-dictatorish-nazish horrors you want. If you or your children were dying because some scientists did non-consenting & non-needed test on them to make sure "we build the technology to save million others" you wouldn't find this fair.
- parrot_11 8y agoSo what happens when: 1. Your country A doesn't allow genetic enhancement because of some "equality" concerns. 2. Another country B decides to go ahead with it anyways, gets a number of competitive advantages, eventually gains an upper hand economically and any other spheres.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- alexandercrohde 8y agoI never said anything is or isn't "okay." I'm pointing out that collectively we, together, have to decide what we think is okay. And I'm pointing out it's very comfortable and easy for us to say "Nobody can ever opt in to a risky scientific experiment." And I'm saying if we choose this, we may be letting lots and lots of people die because of it. Is that a good enough reason to be more experimental? That's for us, together, to decide.
- buboard 8y ago> it's okay to do human testing because we can save million of others " ? We still do wars
- buboard 8y agomaybe, but you are appealing to the wrong crowd