リスクコミュニケーションと技術者倫理

抄録

This paper aims to discuss the relation between risk communication and engineering ethics. While public safety has been regarded as the paramount issue in engineering ethics, the importance of risk communication in assuring public safety has been overlooked. As for the problems with risk information, the literature of engineering ethics has discussed them in mainly terms of informed consent. However, the concept of informed consent is not applicable to engineering, for it presupposes a face-to-face relationship between the sender and the receiver of risk information. In this paper I would like to argue that the concept of risk communication should be introduced into engineering ethics, and I also wish to characterize the features of a form of risk communication suitable for engineering.