A TRIUMPH OF TECHNOLOGY:

...they work exceptionally well...

...FLASHBACK...

...Traditionally, the ethical task has been to justify the use of extraordinary means of therapy or treatment...

...The question has been moved from whether we should turn the machine on to whether we should turn it off...

...The basic reason is that the ethical tradition saw people as bound to use only what would be ordinarily required to maintain health...

...A final reason may be the uncritical and unexamined acceptance of such technological advances as an unqualified good...

...A working presupposition of many connected with the trial seems to have been the preservation of life for its own sake...

...Only this time the dependency may be a creature of humanity's own making...

...The problem of active vs...

...But if it is allowed to operate uncritically, we may find that it will bring us closer to the science-fiction fantasies of the totally technological society...

...Now it may suddenly find its position reversed...

...And, at least in the Catholic tradition, there is the recognition that life is not the highest value and that, therefore, one is not obligated to do what is extraordinary to preserve it...

...For the decision that the machine should not be turned off may mean that we are entering a new age and will find ourselves in a new relation to technology...

...It is an extremely expensive procedure and on that basis alone very extraordinary...

...Of all the many questions that have been raised by the Quinlan case, the question of the technological imperative may be the most important, for it sets forth the basic ethical and social context in which all other questions have to be asked...

...The principle has always recognized that what is extraordinary can become ordinary...

...We have them and therefore we use them...

...To make such a decision uncritically or on the basis of some false issues raised in the Quinlan case would be the greatest of follies and the most unethical of all possibilities...

...A triumph of technology will occur if the technological imperative is not brought forward and clearly examined...

...However, an extremely important shift seems to have taken place...

...Very little emphasis is being placed on whether Ms...

...In the usual ethical interpretation, extraordinary has meant very expensive, experimental, or medicine proper to the disease, hut which is incapable of restoring the person to health...

...Humanity has spent the last few centuries rejoicing in its freedom from the domination by the powers of nature...

...Quinlan may reveal much about ourselves and our future...

...What right do we have to terminate what technology can prolong...

...It is very important to recognize that there have been no medical claims that she will ever be cured or restored to a meaningful degree of health, even though her physical life may be maintained...

...What has happened in this process is a subtle- but extremely critical-reversal of the traditional question about the use of extraordinary or heroic means of treatment...

...However, it is the imperative itself that needs critical evaluation...

...therefore they and their effects must be good...

...But this most basic question was not called into question at the trial...

...Indeed, the decision that Ms...

...If the right to terminate such treatment had been upheld, humanity would have been affirmed as the master of the technology it designs, rather than its servant...

...The principle of the technological imperative is extremely critical in the Quinlan matter for it shapes almost preconsciously our feelings and value-responses about the situation...

...One reason for this is because of what many have called the "technological im...

...Simply stated, this means that if we can do it, we should do it...

...but it still clings to the test of the potential for restoring health for evaluating the treatment...

...Pius XII-no flaming liberal-argued that one was never obligated to use such means even though death would certainly and knowingly follow...

...Quinlan need not be maintained on the respirator...

...As it is, the fate of Ms...

...When stated in such a form, the technological imperative is easily recognized as illogical...

...The Quinlan case represents an important crossroad for humanity...

...If it is evident that we can continue to maintain Ms...

...Quinlan on a respirator almost indefinitely-and there is the technological capacity to do so-then who are her parents, or anyone else for that matter, to demand that the machine be turned off...

...Quinlan must be artificially maintained by her respirator may be a clear signal that humans stand in a new relation to technology and the products of a technological civilization...

...THOMAS A. SHANNON is assistant professor of social ethics in the Department of Humanities at Worcester Polytechnic Institute...

...We have designed the machines...

...A TRIUMPH OF TECHNOLOGY THOMAS A. SHANNON The technological imperative in the Quinlan case Much more than the fictional dictatorship of the computer "Hal" in the movie 2001, the trial of Karen Quinlan may well have revealed something of the real relation between humans and technology...

...In many ways, this imperative lies close to the heart of America for it stresses the virtues of pragmatism, activism and capitalism...

...From this framework, One can fairly easily argue that Ms...

...But however one interprets this major shift in the ethical analysis of such cases, there must be an evaluation, for a shift such as this is too important an issue to enter our lives uncritically...

...The major reason for this may be that we now have the technological capacity to prolong life almost indefinitely...

...The problem of whether this treatment may be extraordinary or beneficial seems to have vanished...

...But when disguised as modern medical care and treatment, it may not appear in this unfavorable light...

...passive euthanasia, the degree of control humans have over their own lives and the lives of others, the specter of a renewal of Nazi-type atrocities, and the Vatican's last desperate grasp at control over the destiny of individuals all pale in comparison to the problem of determining whether we ought to do all that we can...

...Also the treatment-including the use of the respirator-has no potential to restore her to health...

...Quintan's treatment may have any benefits to her-other than artificially maintaining her at a rather low level of even physical existence, to say nothing of the quality of her personal life...

...While technology may be forcing ethics to re-evaluate some of its principles and conclusions, ethics must also force such a re-evaluation of the basic premises of technology so that the values can be clearly stated and their operational consequences can be evaluated...

...Another reason may be that such technological advances represent a way of avoiding our embarrassment over death, for we now have a way to put off this final affront to modern medicine...

...Part of the reason for this shift in orientation may be the simple presence of the machines in the hospitals...

...In many ways, it has been a working hypothesis of contemporary society and of health care in particular...