BUILDING EXPERT CRITICS FOR ETHICAL ISSUE TESTING

An expert critic (or an expert critiquing system) is a computer progra m that critiques human-generated solutions. So far, ethics has not bee n incorporated in critiquing systems. We investigate the important iss ue of incorporating ethical issue testing into expert critic systems. To illustrate the need for such a study, our discussion consists of et hical issue testing in physicians' treatment plans for cancer patients . Three ethical issues are identified, and one of them, namely, the Gu inea pig treatment ethics, is discussed in detail. An experimental pro totype system (ETHICS1) has been developed for this purpose. The struc ture of this system along with its implementation is described. We com pare our study with existing expert critiquing systems and point out s ome implications of building critics for ethical issue testing.