Civic responsibility, not ethical dilemma: More critical assessment of our public investment in research and technology is sought

Controversy over the wisdom and ethics of human access to knowledge reaches back as far as Eve and The Apple. The pursuit of knowledge through scientific research is almost always under some degree of contention. In his presidential address, "The Ethical Dilemma of Science," before the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1952, Prof. A. V. Hill asked: "If ethical principles deny our right to do evil in order that good may come, are we justified in doing good when the foreseeable consequence is evil?" He pointed out that science is not alone in having its intended benefits to mankind misused—or, we would add, unused. "Liberty," he said, "may lead to licence, religion can be used to inflame passions, laws can be exploited to protect wrongdoing." He concluded that there is no special dilemma which scientific men, as distinct from others, have to meet, unless it be to ...