Sunderland Mary E, Nayak Rahul Uday
Department of Nuclear Engineering, 4155 Etcheverry Hall, MC 1730, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720-1730, USA,
Sci Eng Ethics. 2015 Aug;21(4):1019-31. doi: 10.1007/s11948-014-9567-3. Epub 2014 Jun 14.
It is widely accepted that translational research practitioners need to acquire special skills and knowledge that will enable them to anticipate, analyze, and manage a range of ethical issues. While there is a small but growing literature that addresses the ethics of translational research, there is a dearth of scholarship regarding how this might apply to engineers. In this paper we examine engineers as key translators and argue that they are well positioned to ask transformative ethical questions. Asking engineers to both broaden and deepen their consideration of ethics in their work, however, requires a shift in the way ethics is often portrayed and perceived in science and engineering communities. Rather than interpreting ethics as a roadblock to the success of translational research, we suggest that engineers should be encouraged to ask questions about the socio-ethical dimensions of their work. This requires expanding the conceptual framework of engineering beyond its traditional focus on "how" and "what" questions to also include "why" and "who" questions to facilitate the gathering of normative, socially-situated information. Empowering engineers to ask "why" and "who" questions should spur the development of technologies and practices that contribute to improving health outcomes.
人们普遍认为，转化研究从业者需要掌握特殊技能和知识，以便能够预测、分析和处理一系列伦理问题。虽然有少量但数量在不断增加的文献探讨了转化研究的伦理问题，但关于这如何适用于工程师的学术研究却很匮乏。在本文中，我们将工程师视为关键的转化者，并认为他们有能力提出变革性的伦理问题。然而，要求工程师在工作中拓宽并深化对伦理的思考，需要改变科学和工程界对伦理的通常描绘和认知方式。我们建议，不应将伦理视为转化研究成功的障碍，而应鼓励工程师对其工作的社会伦理层面提出问题。这需要将工程的概念框架从传统上对“如何”和“什么”问题的关注扩展到也包括“为什么”和“谁”的问题，以便收集规范性的、基于社会情境的信息。赋予工程师提出“为什么”和“谁”问题的能力，应该会推动有助于改善健康结果的技术和实践的发展。
