publication

Ethics as a tool of value denial in the EU's governance of scientific and technological innovation

Authors:
Annabelle LITTOZ-MONNET
2021

The chapter shows how values, when approached through the repertoire of ethics expertise, in fact serve to impose consensus in EU policymaking. Mobilising ethics experts in policymaking can depoliticise problems both by maintaining the appearance of the technical character of policy proposals and by making it possible to keep bioethics deliberation within the domain of experts, thus excluding the broader public or alternative voices from debates. Mobilising ethics thus pre-empts or tames value-based conflicts on scientific and technological developments. In this, the chapter emphasises the polysemy and multiple uses of values.