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Ethical Responsibilities of Scientists in the Manhattan Project Azra Meryem Yasar Department of Engineering, Koc University ACWR101: Science Values and Ethics David O’Regan January 13th, 2023
Project started to protect the US nation in case of an attack from Germany but, as Author Rhodes indicates in his lecture, “There was no such confidence and mutual understanding in Germany.” (cited in Conca, 2013, p.4). So, scientists agreed to work for the people who were considering the destruction of another country to protect their nation where there wasn’t even a real threat. When the war in Europe started to come to an end there was still in Japan. Scientists thought that it was a need to create a nuclear weapon to stop this inhuman war that could cause more damage over time but what they did not consider is, as also Rhodes indicates, the profile of the people suffering from the war had changed (as cited in Conca, 2013, p.14). Dropping the bomb caused the death of innocents who didn’t have much voice in the war rather than militarists who had chosen to become a part of the war. Whether it is to protect the nation or to stop a war that could end with more people dying, it is not appropriate to even consider destructing another country to protect yours’ and killing innocent people rather than fighting with the military. Besides the ones who knew about the project, most of the workers didn’t have an idea, and for those, showing ignorance as an excuse is not acceptable. Many young scientists were recruited by the military to work on this secret project in Los Alamos, they became a part of the engineering detachment created by the project leader Groves (Kelly cited in Bragg, 2021, p.6). Oppenheimer, who was an important physicist working with Groves, told his workers that, what they were working on would stop the battle and save many people, but he couldn’t share the information about what they were building (Rhodes cited in Conca, 2013, p.5). So, they have helped the creation of a terrible weapon without awareness, and this doesn’t make them innocent at all, they have closed their eyes to the truth and were unaware of the
surroundings where there was an obvious effort for an important project. Scientists were sure about the effects of science as always beneficial, Lewenstein indicates that they did not question the science’s returns, they considered science good and the need for an appropriate policy(as cited in Gwynne, 2020, p.4), and some of them were taken away by the excitement of being part of this project, as Close tells, scientists were going through the appealing properties of the project (in Bragg, 2021, 44:46). Scientists should have broad onto their work and understand what was happening around despite the obstacles put by the authorities because at the end they are responsible for the consequences of their work. Poor communication between scientists, the public, and policymakers caused the lack of limitations on military access to the bomb which showed that scientists weren’t controlling the use of their invention. Oppenheimer comments on scientific discoveries as “Deep things in science are not found because they are useful; they were found because it was possible to find them.” (Quoted by Rhodes as cited in Conca, 2013, p.3) so what is more important is how you can control the use for it to be useful on behalf of the humanity. To exemplify, some scientists had hoped that the test of the atomic bomb, the Trinity test which occurred in New Mexico, would make Japan give up on the war (Gwynne, 2020, p.3). Though the leader of the project, Groves, wasn’t thinking the same, he wanted the weapon to be ready to use for the war so once the bomb was ready, it surely would be dropped (Reed cited in Bragg, 2021, 25:32). If the interaction between scientists and Groves was strong, disagreements on the necessity of dropping the bomb may have stopped such incident. Once the knowledge has
References Bragg, M. (2021). In our time. The Manhattan Project. [Audio Podcast]. BBC Radio 4. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00108h Conca, J. (2013). Why did we make the atomic bomb? Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2013/12/07/why-did-we-make-the-atomic- bomb? Gwynne, P. (2020). When physics faced the darkest part of reality. Inside science. http://www.insidescience.org/manhattan-project-legacy/public-engagement
