2

• Human rights

  Fundamental, inherent rights and freedoms to which every individual is entitled simply because they are human
• Human rights-based approach to science, technology and development

  • Eudaimonia (human flourishing)
  • Human rights
• S. Romi Mukherjee: 'He explained a human rights-based approach to science, technology and developments'
• Key documents

  • Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 27)
  • UNESCO Recommendation on the Status of Scientific Researchers-1974 (Article 4)
  • UNESCO Declaration on the Use of Scientific Knowledge-1999 (Article 33)
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 27)

  • Participate in and benefit from scientific advances
  • Be protected from scientific misuses
  • Examined through a cultural rights perspective
• Key human rights relevant to healthcare

  • Freedom from torture and inhumane treatment
  • Right to health
  • Privacy
  • Non-discrimination
  • Informed consent
  • Right to access information
• UNESCO Recommendation on the Status of Scientific Researchers-1974 (Article 4)

  • All advances in scientific and technological knowledge should solely be geared towards the welfare of global citizens
  • Calls upon members of the states to develop necessary protocol and policies
  • Countries are asked to show that ST are integrated into policies that aim to ensure a more humane and just society
• The role of healthcare professionals

  • Patient advocacy
  • Research ethics
  • Scientific integrity
• The role of policymakers

  • Regulatory frameworks
  • Resource allocation
• UNESCO Declaration on the Use of Scientific Knowledge-1999 (Article 33)

  • ST and its applications are indispensable for development
  • All levels of government and the private sector should provide enhanced support for building up an adequate and evenly distributed scientific and technological capacity through appropriate education
  • Research programs are indispensable foundation for economic, social, cultural and environmentally sound development
  • Encompasses issues on pollution-free production, efficient resource use, biodiversity protection, and brain drains
• Functions of human rights

  • They function as the "golden mean"
  • Protects the weak, poor and the vulnerable from the excesses and deficiencies of ST
  • Gaps of poor and rich countries (tangible and intangible)
  • Bridging gaps, human flourishing/eudaimonia through ST
• Bill Joy


  Author, "Why the Future Does Not Need Us"
• 21st century technologies


  • Genetics
  • Nanotechnology
  • Robotics (GNR)
• Potential threats of GNR

  • Self-replicating
  • Can get out of control
  • If machines are given the capacity to decide on their own, it will be impossible to predict how they might behave in the future
  • Fate of human race at the mercy of machines
  • Computers will become more intelligent than humans
  • Dystopian vision-dehumanized, fearful lives
• Murphy's Law


  • Overreliance on antibiotics led to the great paradox of emerging anti-biotic resistant strains of dangerous bacteria
  • DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) introduction to combat malarial mosquitoes only gave rise to multi-drug resistant malarial parasites

  
• John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid: '"Bill Joy failed to consider social factors and only deliberately focused on one part of the picture."'
• It is preeminently necessary that the scientific community, governments, and businesses engage in a discussion to determine the safeguards of humans against the potential dangers of ST.