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.
