Controversies about Risks and Their Relation to Different Paradigms in Biological Research

Abstract

Science-based complex technical processes and/or their products like radio-active isotopes, halogenated carbohydrates or genetically engineered organ-isms are often characterized by the fact that their specific risks may in-volve potentially disastrous and/or irreversible consequences. Another feature of such technological Systems is that there are no clear cut boun-daries between research and technological development, since development becomes a scientific strategy, which extends science beyond the laboratory. The applications of such technologies or their products therefore have an experimental character, which makes it on the one side impossible to accurately estimate the probability of failure of such Systems and their safeguards on theoretical grounds. On the other side, due to the presumed low probability of failure it could be impossible to empirically confirm preliminary estimates in practice. (Weinberg 1972) Moreover, because of the high consequences of failure, testing by trial and error of such technol-ogies poses an inacceptable high risk to the human population and to the environment. That is why this type of risks was called “hypothetical” (Häfele 1974), in contrast to the “empirical” risks of more traditional technologies, which can be verified without inacceptable consequences.