ABSTRACT
The radiation health effect narratives in this collection implicitly raise a number
of distinct moral issues. The aim of this chapter is to identify and to discuss
the nine most important of these ethical aspects of the larger story of nuclear
contamination and the government’s response to it that these separate narratives
reveal. Ethics is defined broadly here as critical reflection about “right” and
“wrong” actions and “good” and “bad” character traits and other states of affairs
(e.g., public health). Ethical interpretations differ from descriptive accounts in
providing normative arguments about the actions and motivations of individuals
and institutions.
