Do scientists have a moral responsibility for the results of their inventions?

Answer 1

Scientists, it seems to me, are about the business of finding answers to questions about our physical and natural world.
If the course of those investigatiions leads them to morally unacceptable results, are they responsible for the results?
I don't think so. The result is implicit in the question. It is only its discovery that reveals it, and you can't place a responsibility on the discoverer for the answer.
It is the implimentaion of the result that matters, and that is, all too often, out of the hands of scientists.
In that sense, the answer has to be "no".
If the scientist takes an active part in the implimentation of the unacceptable result, then it is a different question, and the answer is probably "yes".

Answer 2

No. The moral responsibility rests with the people who use the invention for evil purposes.

Someone invented the use of fire, then someone else used it to burn down houses and kill people. Someone invented bronze to make a better hoe, then someone sharpened the hoe and used it in battle. Gunpowder was made for pretty fireworks, then someone made it explode inside a metal tube and shoot out pieces of metal that killed. Atomic energy was invented as a source of power, then others converted it into a bomb. Lasers were not invented as weapons.

The moral responsibility rests with those who ordered and paid the scientists for those results.

Answer 3

Only if their invention can ONLY be used for a negative reason. The users take ultimate responsibility for their actions.

Scientists who develop ever more lethal chemical weapons are fully responsible for acts using those weapons.

Answer 4

Alfred Nobel definitely thought so after he invented dynamite.

Answer 5

yes - although if they come across something by accident and it is not for the better of mankind then I do not know if my answer would be the same actually.

Answer 6

Inventions/inventors don't hurt people. People hurt people..

Answer 7

yes!