ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief introduction to the link between ethical analysis and the treatment of ends within a risk analysis. The rationality of a risk analysis is guaranteed by the use of the best scientific information interpreted through accepted modes of scientific reasoning. The cited risk analyses are flawed ethically in that they necessarily require the assumption that a site is proven safe if there is no evidence to the contrary. Simple prudence would argue for including adverse effects to the ecosystem within a risk analysis focused on individuals. Ethical analysis is said to be separate from the ontological and epistemological analyses needed to characterize risk. Ethical reflection on the need to consider equity might cause the analyst to adjust the analysis to include a calculation of variability. An analysis reflecting the ethical position that generations far into the future have ethical standing will differ from an analysis based on the position that only current individuals have standing.
