Computers creating ethical dilemmas

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Sept, 1995

Computer usage is raising new questions. For example:

* Should your employer make sure the workplace is designed to minimize health risks such as back strain and carpal tunnel syndrome for those who work on computers?

* Can your boss prohibit you Trom sending personal memos via electronic mail to a friend at the other side of the bank, hospital, newsroom, or business office?

* Should your employer monitor your work? If so, should you be warned beforehand? If warned, does that make the practice okay?

* What if computer research found that people of your ethnic background had a higher than average chance of getting a specific disease? Should insurance companies be allowed to use that information to charge you more?

* Can you ethically advertise your product or service on the Internet?

* Is it okay to transmit pornography over the Internet?

According to Kenneth Goodman, director of the Forum for Bioethics and Philosophy at the University of Miami, who teaches courses in computer ethics, "There's hardly a business that's not using [computers]," and that means issues of safety, privacy, and monitoring will continue to arise. He cautions, though, that it isn't always easy to answer such apparently simple questions as when computers should be used, when they should be trusted who should have access to them, and who--or what--is responsible when something goes wrong.

In one case he cites, a technician trusted what he thought a computer was telling him and administered a deadly dose of radiation to a hospital patient. Whose fault was it--the programmer's, the hospital's, the technician's, the supervisor's, the computer's? "How much responsibility ,an you place on a machine?," Goodman asks.

In some ways, he maintains, there is nothing unique about computer communication. Take, for instance, the question of free expression. He argues that pornography and/or hate speech are no different or the Internet than in the bookstore or on the streets. They equally challenge society's commitment to free expression and First Amendment rights.

Ads on the Internet pose another ethical challenge. An attorney advertises, "I'll help you get a green card." Is that all right? What about tobacco and alcohol ads? It's free speech, Goodman concedes, but "maybe not appropriate on Internet." Maybe what is needed, he says, is a separate, home-shopping Internet. "This mirrors society's recognition of the distinctness of commercial speech."