Falling Leaves and Ethical Dilemmas: Agent Orange in Vietnam

Abstract

Advances in science and technology frequently present us with ethical dilemmas that are difficult to resolve, partly because of their intellectual novelty, but also because society has so little experience coping with the kinds of problems presented by new science. So it was, after the first atomic explosion forced us to confront how to regulate this powerful new force to benefit, rather than to destroy, humankind. So it is now, with our newfound ability to clone mammals and to engineer the genetic makeup of cells and organisms. No field of science, no matter how innocuous it may seem, is exempt from an ability to stir the ethical pot, yielding vexing new problems. What follows here is an account of a major ethical dilemma that emerged from research on green plants. As a result of this work, the botanist, probably the last of the scientific innocents, was unexpectedly catapulted into the same ethical hot pot as other scientific colleagues.