Tech in History and Art Project Part 4

Nuclear Weapons Moral and Ethical Aspects

http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/key-issues/ethics/issues/political/paupp_nuclear-crucible.htm

The advent of the nuclear age has virtually erased the moral boundaries that have acted as a constraint on human decision making with respect to war. The rise of technological society has elevated the place of "technique" as the guiding force for both technology and political discourse in the atomic age. As a consequence, an historical alteration has been effectively accomplished: technology has been transformed into the new theology and theology and moral argument have been subsumed under the umbrella of technological discourse.

http://nuclear-news.net/information/religion-and-ethics/ethics-of-nuclear-power/

 The unethical nature of nuclear power, nuclear weapons, and the entire nuclear fuel cycle is becoming more obvious, as its history unfolds. On grounds of nuclear weapons spread, unsolved wastes problem, health and environment, effects on indigenous and poor peoples, injustice to today’s and future generations – and even the sheer financial costs for now and the future – it is clear that “atoms for peace” is a false and unethical enterprise. Given the mounting negative evidence about the nuclear industry, it is concerning that so many world political, scientific and economic leaders continue to promote the industry. Sir Mark Oliphant, one of the founders of the atomic bomb, was one who had the courage to change his mind, and to speak out against nuclear power and nuclear weapons.

http://www.lasg.org/LifeAtTheLabs/immorality.htm

Nuclear weapons are not just another class of weapons in the long history of development of weapons. Nuclear weapons are unique - their impact is primarily on innocent civilian non-combatants, particularly women and children; their radiation effects persist for generations after their detonation; they are intrinsically indiscriminate, largely uncontrollable, and above all, they are instruments of mass murder on a scale unparalleled in human history. This uniqueness of nuclear weapons is now clearly affirmed in an Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice rendered in the month of July 1996. Nuclear weapons have security, political and economic implications. In the ultimate analysis, however, the issue of nuclear weapons is a moral question. It is a question of right and wrong, good and evil, ethics. It is this ethical aspect of nuclear weapons, especially as it applies to the designing and manufacture of nuclear weapons.