BEYOND THE RHETORIC OF PREMEDITATED MURDER - TOWARD A RATIONAL AND COMPASSIONATE ENVIRONMENTALIST PERSPECTIVE ABOUT THE ETHICS OF RISK ASSESSMENT

The philosophical basis for opposition and support of risk assessment by environmentalists is considered. Opponents' perspective is dominate d by ''empathy'' for individual victims, theoretical and identifiable, who suffer morbidity or mortality due to environmental pollution. Pro ponents' perceive optimization of aggregate public health as the ethic al imperative. Taken to their extreme, these positions lead to angry r hetoric in their mutual efforts to discredit the opposing view, withou t considering whether it is possible to integrate the legitimated impu lses that lie behind the two perspectives. This essay presents one suc h synthesis that both accepts the inevitability of risk assessment (an d in many cases its importance) as a decision analytic tool but also i ntegrates many of the noble convictions that lie behind the critique w hen victims are clearly identifiable. As ecological risk assessment be comes an increasingly developed tool for decision-making about managin g ecosystem health, many of the same arguments are certain to be wield ed. A balanced philosophical approach to this new discipline has the p otential to expedite a more rational and ultimately protective public policy while conveying an important societal message about compassion and respect for the sanctity of life.