Environmental Health Ethics

Description

Environmental Health Ethics illuminates the conflicts between protecting the environment and promoting human health. In this study, David B. Resnik develops a method for making ethical decisions on environmental health issues. He applies this method to various issues, including pesticide use, antibiotic resistance, nutrition policy, vegetarianism, urban development, occupational safety, disaster preparedness and global climate change. Resnik provides readers with the scientific and technical background necessary to understand these issues. He explains that environmental health controversies cannot simply be reduced to humanity versus environment and explores the ways in which human values and concerns - health, economic development, rights and justice - interact with environmental protection.

David B. Resnik, JD, PhD, is Bioethicist at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health. Dr Resnik additionally holds the positions of Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at North Carolina State University and Associate Editor of Accountability in Research. He has written eight books and numerous articles on ethical, philosophical and legal issues in science, medicine and technology. He is also Chair of the NIEHS Institutional Review Board, which oversees and reviews research projects that include human participants.

'Resnik has written a wonderful introduction to the field of environmental health ethics. He supplies a wealth of information about the key ethical issues in the field, as well as the science that underlies those issues. Moreover, he proposes a set of ethical principles - including both human-focused and environment-focused considerations - for addressing ethical questions related to environmental health.' Kevin C. Elliott, University of South Carolina 'Environmental Health Ethics is an invaluable instructional text that provides a unique intersection between ethics and environmental health by an author who has mastery of both fields. I cannot think of a better book that applies ethics to public health and is informed by the best literature in both fields. In his exceptionally lucid analysis, Resnik applies Aristotle's 'Doctrine of the Mean' to applied ethical problems in environmental health by avoiding excess and deficiency in working out ethical dilemmas. The book covers a wide landscape of issues, opens them up to rational discourse, weighs alternative values, and leaves room for democratic process and personal autonomy.' Sheldon Krimsky, Tufts University 'Resnik's book is a comprehensive, eminently readable overview of one of the most important policy issues of our time. A must-read.' Kristin Shrader-Frechette, O'Neill Family Endowed Professor, University of Notre Dame