Would It Be Unethical to Dump Radioactive Wastes in the Ocean? The Surprising Implications of the Person-Altering Consequences of Policies

Abstract

This article examines whether policy-making is constrained by ethical obligations to future generations. While there is broad consensus that we have ethical obligations to implement policies that benefit distant future generations, the author deems it impossible to formulate a satisfactory rationale for this position based solely on conventional ethical premises. The author reaches this conclusion after considering the ethical implications of the pervasiveness of person-altering consequences.