The Public: Education and Pressures Relative to Technologic Developments

Extract

The title which I have been given suggests that in my particular consideration of technology the emphasis should be not on professional attitudes, but on public attitudes, and what might be done to inform and if necessary improve them. At first glance, a sensible approach might be to conduct some kind of survey among “the public” to discover what proportion of people hold particular attitudes towards technology. With little in the way of regret, I shall foreswear that approach, not because I am unacquainted with such surveys, but because I perhaps know them too well. If you ask a completely unloaded question, such as “What is your view of medical technology?”, you will probably get answers, but you will not be able to determine how much they are preconditioned by how much the person knows, and in particular how any recent experience of medical investigation has turned out. That in turn may owe more to the nature of his problem than to the skill with which investigations have been selected and performed. On the other hand, if you ask loaded questions, such as “Is medical technology free of risks?,” you will bias the proportion of replies, and still find the answer no easier to interpret.