4.2 Applied ethics

Applied ethics is a very complex endeavour that involves combining theoretical reflections on ethics with practical questions of orientation. Basic concepts and principles of ethics as well as the inner quality of a moral action (morality) are reflected in the context of given circumstances. They are linked with specific questions and requirements of human practice in such a way that a specific form of "own" ethics can emerge in an applied setting. Underlying this is an increasing lack of orientation in modern societies. "Over long stretches of the history of ethics there has been a great consistency with regard to concrete assessments of good behaviour". However, this is no longer the case today due to the speed and dynamics of social and technical developments.

Procedures for the advisory support of political decision-making and the creation of social consensus are also frequently labelled as ethical. A prominent example of this is the German Ethics Council, which is appointed by both the German Bundestag and the Federal Government.

The mandate of the German Ethics Council is defined in §2 EthRG (Ethics Council Act) as follows:

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From: Gesetz zur Einrichtung des Deutschen Ethikrats (2007) Et07, authors‘ translation Original Quote

The German Ethics Council shall monitor the ethical, social, scientific, medical and legal issues and the likely consequences for individuals and society that arise in connection with research and developments, particularly in the field of life sciences and their application to humans.

According to its own terming, the German Ethics Council deals "with the great questions of life. With its opinions and recommendations, it provides orientation for society and politics."

With regard to the advisory and orientation function of ethics councils or ethics committees, ethics can also be understood as an initiative at the interface between science and society. This gives it a kind of political function. After all, politics is not least about balancing the different interests pursued by different actors with different levels of power. It is true that the core business of ethics is the critical scrutiny of moral arguments and demands. However, the more it contributes to the formation of public opinion and the creation of societal consensus, the more it enters the original realm of politics.

The German Ethics Council also deals with topics that can affect the mining industry. One such subjects is societies’ challenges regarding climate change and climate justice. For instance, the council advices that “further growth of consumption and resource use in industrialised countries” has to be critically assessed with regard to the global south and that “alternatives” have to be found for the “exhaustion of resources”. Further the sector is important in “the development of technologies to achieve ‘negative emissions’“. Not least, this is also about people's current way of life, which is challenged by the combination of the world’s resources, its changing climate and modern technologies. From a profound perspective, it is about nothing less than human dignity, which must be recognised and protected under these conditions.

The close interweaving of normative questions with findings and experiences from certain contexts of human interaction does not only increase the content-related complexity of applied ethical reflection. It also leads to a pluralisation of the ethical approaches and basic attitudes of actors concerned. After all, ethics councils or committees are not homogeneous groups, but are made up of experts from interdisciplinary fields and professions. This makes it difficult, if not impossible in principle, to impose a single moral principle from theoretical ethics that could then be applied to a specific case. Instead, consensus is of particular importance.

Especially when it comes to fundamental convictions, i.e. principles, consensus building is generally not possible without friction. Therefore, consensus is necessarily preceded by discourse. These involve illuminating and analysing ethical problems that have a highly practical relevance. In disputes between conflicting principles, fundamental values clash that are sometimes irreconcilable.

Example

Take, for example, current discussions about active euthanasia on demand, as exemplified in the feature film "Playing God" based on Ferdinand von Schirach. It presents the case of a 78-year-old healthy man's wish to die before the German Ethics Council.

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From: IMDB (2024)

“The man wants to put an end to his life. However, this should not be done abroad, but quite legally with the help of his family doctor. The family doctor is personally convinced that it is out of the question to get his elderly but healthy patient a fatal drug. The patient’s case is exemplary discussed before the German Ethics Council. The disputed question here is not which forms of euthanasia are exempt from punishment for doctors, but rather whether doctors have to meet the patient's wish of being tired of life - whether young, old, healthy or sick. One of the Ethics Council members asks the experts and lets the various experts have their say. The constitutional lawyer (…), the patient’s lawyer, (…) a church leader and the head of the Medical Association have different, partly opposing opinions. In the end, the chairperson of the Ethics Council addresses the audience directly: Should the 78 year- old man be given the deadly preparation to take his own life in a self-determined manner?”

Following the broadcast of the programme in November 2020, viewers were asked to vote on whether the man who wanted to die should receive the necessary drug or not. The topic was continued in a subsequent talk show, which can certainly be interpreted as an element of the factual societal discourse on this topic.

In a fiction film about an exemplary ethical discussion, you can leave the ending open. You don't have to decide. And the audience's vote is an opinion without consequences. In concrete situations, however, uncomfortable decisions cannot usually be simply sat out. This is especially the case when political decisions are imminent. Laws have to be formulated and passed to respond to ethically conflicting challenges at the interface between what is technically feasible and what is ethically imperative. Furthermore, it cannot be assumed that all the legitimate interests of those affected can be fully recognised, understood and taken into account. In this respect, ethics has the function of "addressing the undecidable and deciding in full awareness of the paradox" in the light of local and situational circumstances. Ultimately, democratically legitimised political compromises are necessary in order to stay capable to take action. For "It is indisputable that when it comes to genuine collisions of principles, "smooth" solutions are by definition impossible. [...] Without a decision, there can therefore be no way out of the conflict."

It can now be critically argued that a factually achieved consensus can be problematic. This is insofar as its presumed correctness that corresponds with the convictions of some discourse participants does not necessarily withstand ethical scrutiny. This would only be theoretically the case in an ideal discourse without power structures and domination. In practice, such a purely theoretical situation does not exist. In other words: Compromises from concrete ethical discourses can incorporate positions that may themselves be unethical. In order to expose such positions and counter them with arguments, a thorough examination of ethics is indispensable.

The task of applied ethics is to respond to modern society's problem of orientation. Rapid social change and the technical innovations including extraction of (critical) raw materials and the recultivation of mining sites require a reflective approach and adaptation of ethical assessments to the respective new situation. However, such an adjustment should not (only) be understood as a top-down process in which a given ethical norm is applied to a specific case. Rather, by combining experience and expert knowledge from different areas with various ethical theories, an updating and shifting of norms and principles also takes place. Understood in this way, applied ethics is itself standardising and normative on its own. Depending on the respective context of action, more or less independent and different areas of applied ethics can emerge.