The document "Guidelines on Strengthening the Ethical Governance of Science and Technology" clarifies the five ethical principles in the fields of science and technology that China's contemporary science and technology development must follow: to improve human well-being, to respect the right to life, to adhere to the principle of fairness and justice, to take a reasonable risk control, and to maintain openness and transparency. These principles can be used to form and promote the ethical governance mechanisms for scientific and technological development, the norms, the policies and the guidelines concerning different fields and issues. A good understanding of these five ethical principles becomes a key link in the science and technology ethical governance mechanism, and in the formulation of relevant norms, policies and guidelines. The bioethics is taken as a sample field to explore the five principles and to provide some guidelines for their implementation. This paper discusses the five ethical principles based on some bioethical theories and practical problems, to explain the different ethical conflicts in scientific and technological innovations and practical activities, and how to use these principles to coordinate these conflicts and cope with different ethical dilemmas and challenges.

bioethics  /  ethical principles of science and technology  /  risk warning