Reflections on the relevance of the Georgetown paradigm for the ethics of environmental epidemiology

A brief review of the history of bioethics describes how a traditional philosophical model of moral reasoning and justification gave rise to a ‘paradigm theory’ of bioethics. This theory consists of three main principles: autonomy, beneficence and justice. The paradigm has tended to be seen as a model of how to relate the traditions of moral philosophy to other domains of applied ethics, such as business ethics and environmental ethics. This paper challenges these developments and argues for a thoroughly contextualised, instrumental conception of morality and moral reasoning, one which disallows any decisive role for principle in the resolution of problematic moral issues. In light of this critique of the traditional philosophical account of the relation between ethical theory and moral practice, certain lessons for the ethics of environmental epidemiology are indicated.