ADDRESSING ETHICS IN THE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION OF TECHNOLOGICAL RESEARCH

In the context of today's new technological culture, where technological developments, the societal processes and respective public policy are mutually contingent, the public administration continuously faces new challenges. Since the consequences of technological developments have become increasingly unpredictable, new ethical problems emerge for decision makers in relation to economic, environmental, health, security and general public well-being issues. This sets new tasks for public administrations - to secure approaches and tools to address these ethical challenges, since technological research is a domain where the generation and spread of new knowledge takes place, and this is accompanied by risks and uncertainties that are hard to identify, but potentially can have adverse effects on the life of people. In this article we will attempt to justify the need for new approaches in public administration in regard to ethics in technological research and development. We will not propose ready solutions for these challenges, but instead will pose questions that need to be answered before any concrete action might be taken.