Heuristics of precaution: Towards a substantial consideration of ethics in the regulation of agri-food biotechnology risks

Andoni Ibarra; Hannot Rodríguez

Heuristics of precaution: Towards a substantial consideration of ethics in the regulation of agri-food biotechnology risks

In: Ethics and the politics of food

Authors:

Andoni Ibarra

Andoni Ibarra University of the Basque Country, Dpt. of Logic and Philosophy of Science, PO Box 1249, 20080 San Sebastian, Spain, andoni.ibarra@ehu.es

Search for other papers by Andoni Ibarra in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed

and

Hannot Rodríguez

Hannot Rodríguez University of the Basque Country, Dpt. of Logic and Philosophy of Science, PO Box 1249, 20080 San Sebastian, Spain, andoni.ibarra@ehu.es

Search for other papers by Hannot Rodríguez in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed

Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 185–189

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.3920/9789086865758_031

Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):

€42.00€35.00 excl. VAT

Add to Cart

Redeem Access Token

The European regulatory framework of activities with uncertain risk for public health has been constituted since the past decade from a precautionary focus. The case of agri-food biotechnology, as a domain of strong public and scientific conflict regarding safety, is not an exception. In contexts of uncertainty, the precautionary principle (PP) prioritises the public health over the economic health. However, the institutional interpretation of PP considers it as a decision mechanism, which opts to manage uncertainty focusing on the safety side, maintaining the evidence available for decision-making outside the scope of the non-epistemic (i.e., ethical) considerations that shape the public discourse on genetic engineering safety. This dissociation between facts and values, scientific aspects and value assumptions, preserves the expert authority of the institutions: it doesn’t do justice to the fact that the socio-economic values involved in the problem, besides conditioning risk acceptability, are also determinant for its own estimation. By the concept of “heuristics of precaution” we intend to show that PP, in its contexts of interpretation and application, works as a catalyser for the acknowledgement of new potential damage paths, converting the issue of the required evidence in a matter that should also be negotiable in terms of value.

Citation Info

Save
Cite
Email this content

Share link with colleague or librarian

You can email a link to this page to a colleague or librarian:
Email this content
or copy the link directly:

https://brill.edhh.ma/abstract/book/9789086865758/BP000031.xml
The link was not copied. Your current browser may not support copying via this button.

Link copied successfully

Collapse
Expand

Ethics and the politics of food

Preprints of the 6th Congress of the European Society for Agricultural and Food Ethics

E-Book ISBN:: 9789086865758

Publisher:: Wageningen Academic

Print Publication Date:: 10 Oct 2006

Subjects
- Life Sciences

Metrics

	All Time	Past 365 days	Past 30 Days
Abstract Views	99	29	6
Full Text Views	0	0	0
PDF Views & Downloads	1	0	0

African Studies	Education	Media Studies
American Studies	History	Middle East and Islamic Studies
Ancient Near East and Egypt	Human Rights and Humanitarian Law	Musicology
Art History	International Law	Philosophy
Asian Studies	International Relations	Religious Studies
Biblical Studies	Jewish Studies	Slavic and Eurasian Studies
Biology	Languages and Linguistics	Social Sciences
Book History and Cartography	Life Sciences	Theology and World Christianity
Classical Studies	Literature and Cultural Studies

Subjects

Authors

Open Access

Product Information

Company

Contact

Heuristics of precaution: Towards a substantial consideration of ethics in the regulation of agri-food biotechnology risks

Citation Info

Share link with colleague or librarian

Ethics and the politics of food

Preprints of the 6th Congress of the European Society for Agricultural and Food Ethics

Table of Contents

Metrics

Metrics