The ethical use of evidence in biomedicine

Valerie Mike's proposal of an "ethics of evidence" is an interesting, impor tant venture into a little explored field. Mike's two rules (use the best p ossible knowledge and acknowledge uncertainty) have been implicit but need to become explicit in a world where information and knowledge have enormous power-especially in medical practice and research, where evidence is essen tial to clinical decisions, policy formulation, and dissemination of result s. A fully developed ethics of evidence would depend on a still underdevelo ped theory of evidence, that is, on some conception of the nature of eviden ce, the logic of its use and the epistemology of discovery and explanation. Until such a groundwork is developed, practical guidelines are deducible i n the ethics of data collection and dissemination. This article examines th ose ethics, suggesting criteria for the morally responsible treatment of ev idence collection, dissemination, and use.