Risk Analysis
March 2015 Volume 35, Issue 3 Pages 345–554
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/risa.2015.35.issue-3/issuetoc
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Perspectives
The Blind Spot in Risk Ethics: Managing Natural Hazards (pages 354–360)
Neelke Doorn
Article first published online: 16 DEC 2014 | DOI: 10.1111/risa.12293
Abstract
Many risk scholars recognize the importance of including ethical considerations in risk management. Risk ethics can provide in-depth ethical analysis so that ethical considerations can be part of risk-related decisions, rather than an afterthought to those decisions. In this article, I present a brief sketch of the field of risk ethics. I argue that risk ethics has a bias toward technological hazards, thereby overlooking the risks that stem from natural and semi-natural hazards. In order to make a contribution to the field of risk research, risks ethics should broaden its scope to include natural and semi-natural hazards and develop normative distribution criteria that can support decision making on such hazards.