Ethical issues in New Technologies

Another area I am interested in is the ethical and political implications of new technologies. An area I have become interested in is how new technology, often health care technology, impacts our thinking about ethics and political philosophy. We have seen this in part through the cloning and genetic engineering debates. I believe we will see our principles of justice further challenged by new technology such as nanotechnology which in combination with genetic information will undermine people's lack of control over their own genetics. Likewise AI may well challenge our current theories of moral status. Discussing this is of necessity speculative, it is hard to know how our beliefs will change until they do. Nonetheless it is important since it indicates to us now flaws in our moral theories.

I have several papers published in this area:
1. Hunter, D. Oultram, S. 'The Challenge of Sperm Ships: The need for global regulation of medical technology' Journal of Medical Ethics. (2008);34:552-556.
2. Hunter, D. 'Insuring access to essential medicines: me-too drugs & innovation' Global Health and Access to Essential Medicines symposium in the Cambridge Quarterly of Health Care Ethics. In press.


I presently have another paper under consideration in this area:
Hunter, D. L. H. 'Is Autonomy really the Key? The Debate about Prenatal Testing for Adult Onset Conditions.' is under consideration by Journal of Medical Ethics.

I'm presently developing a research plan and book proposal on some of the ethical issues raised by impact of new internet and computer based technologies on medical practice.