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In this unit we will talk about science, technology and ethics, and we will refer

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especially to medicine and the moral challenges that it implies. Science and

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technology are two different areas. Science tries to understand how the

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world is. That's, for example, what physicists do when they try to explain

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why the Sun shines. Technology, on the other hand, tries to invent machines,

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objects that help us. For example, when engineers invent a new car. Nowadays

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science and technology are together, so we talk about technoscience. For example,

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that's what happens in medicine. Medicine today has evolved so much that it has

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created a new area of research called biomedicine. That's the use of live cells

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for scientific and technological purposes. But not everything that we can

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do in science and technology is positive and good. That's why we must establish

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limits to what scientists and engineers can do. Let me give you an example.

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Imagine a doctor has invented a new medicine and wants to try it on his

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patients. So he uses it without informing them. Of course, this is unethical,

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immoral. This shouldn't be ever done. This should be forbidden. That's why we must

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establish limits. And when I talk about limits, I refer to both legal limits and

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moral limits. Legal limits imply that we should pass a legislation that

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determines what is forbidden, what kind of actions must never be done in science

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and technology, so that we can punish people who break this law. But there must

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also be moral limits, meaning that every individual should be aware of what is

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correct and incorrect, and should stop doing what is morally incorrect. One very

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interesting case that shows us the connection between science, technology

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and ethics is a moral dilemma. A moral dilemma is a difficult situation when we

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have to decide between two possible options. Both options are difficult. Both

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options have disadvantages, so it's not easy to decide what is the best thing to

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do. Let me give you an example taken again from medicine. Imagine we have a

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patient that's very ill because he's suffering a strange disease. If we don't

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do anything, he may die. So the doctors are trying a new surgery with him. They

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have invented a new procedure. They can try to operate this patient, but there is

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a high risk that the patient dies in the operation. Should the doctors operate him?

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Or not? If we don't operate the patient, he might die because of the disease. If

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we operate him, he might also die because of the operation. So it's tricky. It's not

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easy to decide what is the best option. What would you do? Here is where medical

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ethics can help us. Medical ethics tries to give us some clues in order to decide

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what's the best thing to do in cases like this. Medical ethics is based on

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four basic principles. The principle of autonomy, the principle of beneficence, the

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principle of non-maleficence, and the principle of justice. The principle of

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autonomy means that the patient has to approve, to accept, to give permission to

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all the things doctors are doing there. The principle of beneficence means that

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everything doctors do must be used to help the patient. The principle of

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non-maleficence means that doctors should never do anything that could harm

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the patient. We must avoid harm. And the fourth principle, the principle of

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justice, means that we must treat all patients fairly and also treat each

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individual case separately, taking into account the peculiar circumstances of

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every individual.