ABSTRACT
The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) provides recommendations and guidance on all aspects of protection against ionising radiation. Radiological protection was considered a matter of science, and perhaps of practical experience, but not of ethics. Gradually, it was realised that this understanding was too narrow, and that the system of radiological protection had implicitly referred to certain values from its very beginning. The report first provides a historical analysis of the ICRP recommendations that endeavours to show that ethical values have been at the basis of the system of radiological protection throughout its evolution, they were rarely made explicit. The ‘Golden Rule’ is one of the most common ethical guidelines around the world. It is found in every single tradition one may choose to look at, and even its wording is strikingly uniform.
