Early Ethical Assessment: An Application to the Sustainability of Swine Body Scanners

Paul B. Thompson, Laurie Thorp, Blake L. Ginsburg, Tabitha Maria Zivku and Madonna Benjamin
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Paul B. Thompson: Department of Community Sustainability, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
Laurie Thorp: Department of Community Sustainability, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
Blake L. Ginsburg: Department of Philosophy, College of Arts and Letters, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
Tabitha Maria Zivku: Program in Environmental Studies, New York University, Manhattan, NY 10003, USA
Madonna Benjamin: Department of Large Animal Clinical Services, College of Veterinary Medicine, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 24, 1-16

Abstract: An early ethics assessment method was used to evaluate sustainability goals and early findings from an automated body scanning technology for swine production. The project had twin goals of discovering potential pitfalls in the technology and exploring the applicability of the method, derived from the Ethical Matrix, as a tool to aid researchers in product design at very early stages in the research and development (R&D) process. This paper reports results on the second objective. Results of the evaluation workshop were coded and qualitatively analyzed. These results are reported and compared; the exercise is compared to the findings of other researchers using more traditional methods for ethical assessment on similar technologies, as well as standard social science methods for ascertaining economic sustainability and social acceptability of technological innovations. We conclude that the method has promise, especially for its applicability at very early stages in R&D, but that it does not substitute for analyses that occur at a much later stage in product or procedural development.

Keywords: precision livestock production; automated sensors; technology assessment; social sustainability; agricultural ethics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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