Ethics and Risk Communication

Abstract

One source of ethical failure in risk communication lies in the inadequate theoretical understanding of ethically significant assumptions embedded in risk discourses. A second source of failure resides in the way that risk communication serves ethical purposes that come into conflict in particular cases. The ethical motivation for risk communication may be to improve effectiveness of decision making, to empower recipients of a message, or to ensure that exposure to risk is consistent with ethical criteria of informed consent. Philosophical theories of ethics provide a useful way to frame these important differences in emphasis.