Integrated Human Practices

As a descriptive ethical matrix, its purpose is to highlight the decision process done by the team at every step of the project in the respect and integrity of stakeholders. During the conception of our device, three conditions are emphasized from the crossings between stakeholders and values (well-being, autonomy, fairness):

• material conditions: taking into account the resources, to compensate their unequal repartition)
• moral conditions: responsibility in design, responsibility of the intermediate actors )
• cultural conditions: acceptability by users.

As a normative ethical matrix towards the members of the team, it is a way to compel our social responsibility in this project.

Presentation of the stakeholders in the development of our technology

Actors: any person or group of people who can make a decision concerning the right way to act and who can have an impact on that decision. As actors, we also wanted to introduce non-humans, in our case the environment.

→ iGEM Team, environment, non stakeholders, future generation

Users: people who use a technology and who may formulate certain wishes or requirements for the functioning of a technology.

→ Users local, NGO

Regulators: organizations who formulate rules or regulations that engineered products have to meet. It can be norms concerning health and safety, but also guidelines linked to relations between competitors and fair trade.

→ NGO, government, WHO

Ref.: Van de Poel, I. and Royakkers L. (2011). Ethics, Technology and Engineering. An introduction.

Remains to be examined

Currently being examined

Already examined or inherently true

No control possible for now

1 - Brainstorming

This ethical matrix is the one describing the important points taken in consideration to choose the subject. As an iGEM team we wanted a technological and innovative challenge, to surpass ourselves. We also wanted to help resolve a concrete worldwide problem, having a positive impact on social and environmental aspects.

2- Production

The key element emerging from this ethical matrix is that our production process needs to be as eco-friendly as possible. Thus applying all the classical rules of production as follows: use a cluster structure to reduce the transport, re-use facilities, treat production waste properly, choose the most optimized solution for each step of the process, from plant heating to final packaging. As the technologies are evolving rapidly, is seems then obvious that all the decisions taken need to be re-assessed regularly to ensure that the processes in place are the more efficient ones in terms of resource comsumption and secondary products production. Another important point is the respect of the workers, we need to make sure that the health standards for working in the factories will be respected at all times during the production.

3-

The total freedom of choice and transparency of our selling process is intrisinc to our apporach and pose no problem. For the future we have to work on communication around our product, to be sure that the stakeholders know what is it and can take an enlightened decision. These stakeholders will then also be included in the setting of commercial deals. Then to respond to most of the challenges of this matrice, a business plan and a SWOT analysis were carried. Currently, an evaluation of the final price of the product is carried to ensure its long term economic viability in comparison to existing systems offered to NGOs. Furthermore tests are done to ensure the added value of our product. A problem that still exists for this step is that for now we only contacted NGO doing actions in the African continent and thus thought our device to fit in their organisations. To further develop our product we need to ensure that we are not creating inequailities in the world, and making our device accessible et each place where cholera is a problem. For that we need to widen our contacts and think of adapting the selling process to different NGOs.