Why new technology is more problematic than old technology

Tristram Engelhardt

pp. 179-183

in: William B. Bondeson, Tristram Engelhardt, Stuart Spicker, Joseph M. White Jr (eds), New knowledge in the biomedical sciences, Berlin, Springer, 1982

Abstract

As the essays in this volume show, the availability or the likelihood of new biomedical technology raises moral issues of costs and of control. As a number of the essays also indicate, there are reasons to believe that the costs (financial and moral) may be greater in the case of the development of new technologies than with the use of those already at hand. These costs are especially troubling when set in the context of the competition for scarce resources, and the special needs of the Third World for population control, the treatment of indigenous diseases, and the provision of sufficient food for its populations.