Let’s suppose a celebrated trio of well-known scientists—a psychiatrist, a sociologist, and a physicist—jointly create a spectacularly powerful substance that, when administered to humans in aerosol form, makes people extremely susceptible to suggestion. Let’s further suppose this trio develops a mechanism whereby the substance can be administered globally at essentially the same time. And let’s further assume that, with the assistance of powerful global communications networks, it is possible to simultaneously deliver to the world’s population a message suggesting that humankind’s survival requires all people to renounce all forms of violence and to respect all other people.
The question: With the expectation that all forms of violence and civil conflicts would essentially stop in their tracks with the implementation of such a process, would such execution by the trio and their supporting communications network be ethical?
Why or why not?