Assessing Expectations: Towards a Toolbox for an Ethics of Emerging Technologies

Lucivero, Federica; Swierstra, Tsjalling; Boenink, Marianne

doi:10.1007/s11569-011-0119-x

Cited by 67 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 19 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…However, the drawback of such early involvement is that stakeholders are invited to reflect on an innovative technology that does not exist yet, making the topic of discussion rather vague. To facilitate meaningful reflection and discussion, then, the imagination of the patients involved has to be triggered: imagining what the technology actually will be able to do, how it will be used, and which broader impacts it may have [33–35]. Here, patients’ experiential knowledge could have added value, supplementing and enriching researchers’ visions of the future with imaginaries of what it would be like to use and live with new biomedical technologies.…”

Section: Challenges To Patient Involvementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Giving Voice to Patients: Developing a Discussion Method to Involve Patients in Translational Research

Boenink

Scheer²,

Garcia³

et al. 2018

Nanoethics

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Biomedical research policy in recent years has often tried to make such research more ‘translational’, aiming to facilitate the transfer of insights from research and development (R&D) to health care for the benefit of future users. Involving patients in deliberations about and design of biomedical research may increase the quality of R&D and of resulting innovations and thus contribute to translation. However, patient involvement in biomedical research is not an easy feat. This paper discusses the development of a method for involving patients in (translational) biomedical research aiming to address its main challenges.After reviewing the potential challenges of patient involvement, we formulate three requirements for any method to meaningfully involve patients in (translational) biomedical research. It should enable patients (1) to put forward their experiential knowledge, (2) to develop a rich view of what an envisioned innovation might look like and do, and (3) to connect their experiential knowledge with the envisioned innovation. We then describe how we developed the card-based discussion method ‘Voice of patients’, and discuss to what extent the method, when used in four focus groups, satisfied these requirements. We conclude that the method is quite successful in mobilising patients’ experiential knowledge, in stimulating their imaginaries of the innovation under discussion and to some extent also in connecting these two. More work is needed to translate patients’ considerations into recommendations relevant to researchers’ activities. It also seems wise to broaden the audience for patients’ considerations to other actors working on a specific innovation.

show abstract

Section: Challenges To Patient Involvementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Giving Voice to Patients: Developing a Discussion Method to Involve Patients in Translational Research

Boenink

Scheer²,

Garcia³

et al. 2018

Nanoethics

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Both Boenink et al (2010) and Lucivero et al (2011) have described methods to systematically develop plausible scenarios. These so-called “techno-ethical” scenarios provide detailed stories on how technology and society might co-develop over time, resulting in various types of futures.…”

Section: Toward An Approach Of Responsible Innovation Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

Transcranial Electrical Stimulation to Enhance Cognitive Performance of Healthy Minors: A Complex Governance Challenge

Schuijer

Jong

Kupper

et al. 2017

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

An increasing number of healthy adolescents are consuming products that can enhance their cognitive performance in educational settings. Currently, the use of pharmaceuticals is the most widely discussed enhancement method in the literature, but new evidence suggests that other methods based on Transcranial Electrical Stimulation (tES) also have potential as cognitive enhancer. Just like pharmaceutical enhancers, the availability and education-related use of tES-devices raise a broad range of ethical, legal, and societal issues that need to be addressed by policy-makers. Few studies, however, have specifically explored these issues in relation to child wellbeing. In this narrative review with systematic search, we describe the issues for child wellbeing that could arise from the availability and education-related use of tES-based enhancers by healthy minors. We demonstrate that the issues form a complex web of uncertainties and concerns, which are mainly incited by two factors. First is the high level of factual uncertainty due to gaps in empirical evidence about the exact working mechanisms and efficacy of tES. Moreover, a lack of insight into the technique’s (long-term) effects on healthy developing brains, and uncertainties about potential cognitive trade-offs have fueled concerns about the technique’s safety and impact. The second factor that contributes to the complexity of issues is the presence of moral diversity in our society. Different opinions exist on whether a certain enhancement effect would be desirable and whether potential risks would be acceptable. These opinions depend on one’s moral perspective, and the way one interprets and weights values such as the child’s autonomy and authenticity. The challenge for proper governance resides in the design of an appropriate framework that is capable of balancing the different moral perspectives in society, while recognizing the uncertainties that still exist. We therefore argue for a responsible innovation approach, which encourages an adaptive attitude toward emerging knowledge and dynamic societal values, to deal with the identified issues regarding tES-based enhancement appropriately.

show abstract

“…The active inclusion of SEAs in R&D projects can be realised with various methods, including real-time technology assessment [32], ethical parallel research [15], moral imagination [33] and sensitisation [34,35]. A new, promising, and potentially transformative [36] approach to include SEAs in R&D is 'Midstream Modulation' (MM), first introduced by Fisher in 2006 [37].…”

Section: Stimulating the Integration Of Social Aspects In Laboratory mentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving industrial R&D practices with social and ethical aspects: Aligning key performance indicators with social and ethical aspects in food technology R&D

Flipse

Sanden

Osseweijer

2014

Technological Forecasting and Social Change

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Assessing Expectations: Towards a Toolbox for an Ethics of Emerging Technologies

Cited by 67 publications

References 19 publications

Giving Voice to Patients: Developing a Discussion Method to Involve Patients in Translational Research

Giving Voice to Patients: Developing a Discussion Method to Involve Patients in Translational Research

Transcranial Electrical Stimulation to Enhance Cognitive Performance of Healthy Minors: A Complex Governance Challenge

Improving industrial R&D practices with social and ethical aspects: Aligning key performance indicators with social and ethical aspects in food technology R&D

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About