I have an Ethical Research Presentation assignment due on June 13, 2020 for Humanities course (Values and Ethics). I have done quite a bit of work on it already. I have an outline, and it does require

MORALITY OF THE USE OF DRONES

Gerald Dynda

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

HUMN 330 Ethics and Values

5/31/2020

Technological advancement have revolutionized the manner in which war is conducted by different countries. Over the last two years, technology has enabled people to kill or injure at a distance, the current advancements allow individuals to launch attacks remotely through the use of drones which has become a major ethical issue in the modern world (Tutu, 2014). Today although the use of drones in the warfare has been attributed to be quite important in security enhancement, there has been also ethical issues that have surrounded the use of drones. The use of drones in the United States saw an increase from the year 2001 with the inventory of drones exponentially increasing (Whetham, 2013). This has posed some ethical issues relating to the use of this type of technology in the launching of missiles. In the article by Fotion et al., Just War Theory, the principle of discrimination is referenced, and this forbids deliberately aiming to harm non-combatants (Fotion, Kashnikov, & Lekea, 2007).

There are ethical theories that dictates whether an action is right or wrong. These theories includes: deontological, virtue ethics and utilitarian theories.
These theories helps in understanding whether an action constitutes to accepted code of conduct or not.
The use of drone by the US poses the question on the decision of the person who pulls the trigger and how the weapons will be used.
Whether the civilian involved in the attack deserve to be involved.
Use of drones has led many unintended injuries and this opens the discussions on their applicability in solving the ethical dilemmas that follows their use.
It therefore does not meet the criteria for the action by the US government to use drones in the warfare owing to the various moral issues that becomes unresolved thanks to the use of drones in the modern society.
Use of drones does not meet the moral threshold that is needed to justify it.
There is a lot of opposition of use of drones in war time since it appears that the use of drone strikes are outside of the agreed upon war zones, and civilians might end up dying. The consensus is the fear that drone technology may get into the wrong hands, such as enemies of the US or terrorists, and they could use these technologies in un-ethical way to cause mass casualties of civilian populations (Byrne, 2015).
Ideally UAVs must be small enough to reduce costs and operate within in a shortened or reduced range. For instance, the Gremlins program, combines a lethal weapon payload, cost-efficiency, and a reduced risk to civilian casualties for an optimal performance (Stiles, J., 2017).
“It is not only the United States that is in the competition of development of UAVs, almost every country of the world is in the struggle to develop UAVs to meet their needs”, (Mirza, Qaisrani, Ali, & Naqvi, 2016).
There have been studies performed showing that fighting a war with drones half way around the world is better psychologically on pilots and the front line operators. It has also been revealed that the closer a soldier gets to the battlefield the more they would be affected psychologically by killing the enemy. In other words, the act of killing will affect them in such a way to cause Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In McDonald and Chappelle's study about four percent of operators who fly drones tested to be positive for being at risk of PTSD. This study shows to be much lower than the 12% to 17% estimated occurrences of PTSD on veterans in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, compared to the prevalence of PTSD in the general population (Miller, G., 2012).

Personally I think the use of drones in battle (war) is overall a good thing. Wars are usually raged for a good political purpose and the front line soldiers that fight the battle are the ones that have to pay with their lives for it. I think war is horrible and is a senseless reason to lose a life over, but if one must fight in a war, then it would be wise to use drones to save lives and to better target the enemy with precision. By using drones in battle, the casualty rate in the US will be lower. Our adversaries would take advantage of this technology, so why shouldn’t the US military? Many of our US service members lives are taken by the use of improvised explosive devices (IED’s) and other crude ways. Although innocent people may be killed by the use of drones, most if not all people know that they are in the war zone. They should flee and take every effort possible to avoid being any part of the war, but many choose not to leave. As it has been witnessed and seen, many of the people who seem to be innocent, such as women and children from those countries at war with the US, are taking the lives of our own service members. Is it more so wrong to take lives with the use of drones, or immoral to involve women and children to wage the fight in these wars? I consider myself to have a Utilitarian opinion about the use of drones to decrease loses of US service members and overall benefit the population of our country.

References

Mirza, M. N., Qaisrani, I. H., Ali, L. A., & Naqvi, A. A. (2016). Unmanned aerial vehicles: A revolution in the making. South Asian Studies, 31(2), 243-256. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/1864150528?accountid=27203

Tutu, A. D. (2014). Drones and targeted killing: Legal, moral, and geopolitical issues. Interlink Publishing.

Whetham, D. (2013). Killer Drones: The moral ups and downs. The RUSI Journal, 158(3), 22-32.

Fotion, N., Kashnikov, B. N., & Lekea, I. K. (2007). Terrorism: the new world disorder. London: Continuum. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/doi/full/10.1111/j.1748-0922.2008.00320_6.x

Byrne, E. F. (2018). Making drones to kill civilians: Is it ethical?: JBE JBE. Journal of Business Ethics, 147(1), 81-93. doi: http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/10.1007/s10551-015-2950-4

Stiles, J. (2017). DRONE WARS ARE COMING. United States Naval Institute.Proceedings, 143(7), 44-47. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/1919093061?accountid=27203

Miller, G. (2012). Drone Wars. Science, 336(6083), 842–843. doi: 10.1126/science.336.6083.842. Retrieved from https://science-sciencemag-org.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/content/336/6083/842/tab-pdf