The role and nature of ethical expertise in policy making in times of polycrisis

While the role and nature of scientific expertise has been widely studied, ethical advice and expertise has received much less attention. However, in times of polycrisis, containing multiple interconnected crisis – pandemics, climate change, military conflicts, etc., policy makers have to consider not only scientific and technical evidence but also ethical and societal aspects. To deepen our understanding of so far little studied topic of ethical expertise, this contribution will draw on interdisciplinary literature review (e.g. political science, science and technology studies, and ethics) and expert interviews to provide conceptual and empirical analysis of the role and nature of ethical expertise in policy making. Despite the existence of numerous ethical advice bodies, there is little consensus as to what constitutes ethical expertise in policy making. Neither the advisory processes nor the uses of ethical expertise have been fully detailed empirically. This leads to missed opportunities to understand the role of ethics in democratic societies, to surface plural forms of ethical expertise, and to organise ethics advice in a way which functions well in times of crisis. This contribution will examine issues, such as: similarities and differences between scientific and ethical expertise; opportunities for integrating expert knowledge with democratic public engagement; as well as representativeness, aims, and outcomes of ethics advisory bodies. It will also analyse some of the competing understandings, expectations and potential tensions among ethics experts and policy makers, for example: is the role of ethics advice to provide solutions to complex and uncertain problems or rather to facilitate more reflexive and deliberative policy-making process with greater awareness and deeper understanding of problems and moral choices involved?