Toward a code of conduct for technology ethics practitioners

This paper explores possibilities for creating a code of conduct for practitioners working in technology ethics. The number of technology ethics practitioners is growing when including ethicists embedded in research projects on technology, members of research ethics committees who assess the consequences of technological research, ethicists advising companies, and facilitators in moral/societal exploration through workshops, games, and brainstorm sessions. And, it is not just assessment what technology ethics practitioners do, but increasingly also the guidance of technology development through processes like responsible research and innovation, ethics by design, and design for values. Our exploratory is initial, and this paper may be seen as a position paper. It focusses on preliminary issues such as identifying the types of ethics practitioners the code can be for, the roles the code can play for these practitioners, charting controversies it should address, and the (institutional) arrangements needed for making a code effective.