Ethics in Innovation: Cooperation and Tension

Abstract

An ethical parallel study has been carried out during the development of a new technology for wastewater treatment. Different aspects of the network involved in this innovation were studied. These include the inventory of the network, the risks in implementation of the technology foreseen by the different actors in the network and the responsibility for ethical issues, in particular the risks of the technology. Participating in a parallel study made the ethicists part of the network and influenced the discussions in the network, which indirectly affected the direction of the research. In this contribution the researchers reflect on the influence of the ethical parallel study on the innovation itself and on the proper role of ethicists in ethical parallel research.