ABSTRACT
Ethical questions surrounding the substance and application of public policy arise daily, as a cursory review of newspapers and news broadcasts readily demonstrates. In a single week in 2001, for example, the questions of whether the government should fund research that uses human genetic material, how to allocate tax refunds, whether to invest in building a national missile defense system, and whether to allow oil exploration in a wildlife refuge all competed for attention as part of the national policy agenda. Such issues are inherently ethical because they turn on normative choices—trade-offs among multiple values, judgments about how to interpret complex data, and decisions that distribute power and resources. In short, interactions between ethics and public policy are at once ubiquitous and complex.
