I feel like you've interpreted my comment mainly by the diving into the ethical content of the specific example I was using.
The point of my example, if I was unclear, was that ethical questions very demonstrably arise from scientific discovery, and demonstrably arise from the availability of technology. This point should be considered pretty hard to dispute. That being the case, when we see scientists getting together among themselves to try to better establish what responsibilities they have or do not have, that's broadly a good thing.
Could such a policy be misused in a bad way? Sure, absolutely, do doubt it could. But to me it seems historically illiterate that so many readers here immediately picture that "scientists decide they should have an ethics policy" could be used in harmful ways but these same readers struggle to picture that scientific discoveries themselves or technologies relating to these could also be used in harmful ways, and if so, whether that places ethical obligations on anybody at any point.
Perhaps, too, it ought to be considered that "scientists shouldn't decide to develop an ethics policy" is also a position itself, one that could also pretty obviously be used in harmful ways as well.
The point of my example, if I was unclear, was that ethical questions very demonstrably arise from scientific discovery, and demonstrably arise from the availability of technology. This point should be considered pretty hard to dispute. That being the case, when we see scientists getting together among themselves to try to better establish what responsibilities they have or do not have, that's broadly a good thing.
Could such a policy be misused in a bad way? Sure, absolutely, do doubt it could. But to me it seems historically illiterate that so many readers here immediately picture that "scientists decide they should have an ethics policy" could be used in harmful ways but these same readers struggle to picture that scientific discoveries themselves or technologies relating to these could also be used in harmful ways, and if so, whether that places ethical obligations on anybody at any point.
Perhaps, too, it ought to be considered that "scientists shouldn't decide to develop an ethics policy" is also a position itself, one that could also pretty obviously be used in harmful ways as well.