Quandries of Responsible Innovation: The Case of Alzheimer's Disease

Abstract

The interest in responsible innovation has led to various activities to include social, economic and moral concerns in the process of innovation. This ambition, however, brings along several fundamental questions. We encountered these in a project on responsible innovation in the case of new molecular early diagnostics for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Currently, a number of novel technologies are being developed for in vivo early diagnosis of AD, by identifying and testing new molecular biomarkers. In our project, we study scientific and clinical uncertainties in technology development, analyze the social and cultural as well as the moral implications of existing and alternative ways to deal with them. In this chapter we summarize the fundamental questions about responsible innovation in terms of six ‘quandaries’: problematic, difficult and ambiguous conditions that somehow require fundamental and practical decisions.