Ethics and the Public Administrator

Views of a Policymaker and Public Administrator

This paper, which considers the income maintenance experiments from a welfare administrator’s point of view, explores two major questions. The first is one of process: What is the relationship between the way in which the experiments were conducted and their reception by welfare officials? The second question concerns substance: What lessons for administering today’s welfare system are suggeste...

Creational Ethics is Public Ethics

Public Health and Public Health Ethics*

Spectacular achievements in the health of individuals have not been matched by equivalent improvement in the health of whole populations. Indeed it is against the background of deterioration in levels of population health in some parts of the world and the emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases in association with powerful globalizing forces that there has been a recrudescence of int...

The Public Administrator: God? or Entrepreneur? Or Are They the Same in the Public Service?

This paper distinguishes entrepreneurial behaviour in the public service (innovative activity where the risks and benefits are essentially personal or informed consent can reasonably be presumed) from decisions involving risks to others, usually anonymous and beyond consultation. It argues that decisions by public officials are more often of the latter type, imposing risks on others. This leads...

Public Figures, Professional Ethics, and the Media.

Death certificates and autopsy reports contain personal identifying information and clinical information protected under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996. These documents are used, for example, by the families of the deceased for settling estates, bereavement and closure, and genetic counseling of relatives. Insurance companies, public health and law enfor...