Abstract

The challenge of developing morally justifiable and effective AIDS public policies rejects the simplicity of one-dimensional thinking and requires a broader communal vision, one that fashions policies that protect the public health at an acceptable moral cost. The discipline of ethics can play two viable, but limited, roles in the formulation of public policy. On the substantive level, a core of shared moral ideals that make community possible in a democratic, pluralistic society can generate normative standards that frame a 'moral minimum' for public policy choices. On the procedural level, the discipline of ethics can serve as a critical and evaluative instrument that improves deliberative reasoning by unearthing contradictions, articulating moral values underlying policy choices, and thus expanding the public policy universe into a realm where ethical principles carry practical force. 'Public policy ethics' therefore introduces the element of moral justification into the public policy debate to ensure that public policies are subjected to moral scrutiny and that policy considerations are broadened to include ethical concerns. ;The task of developing a new system of public policy ethics is undertaken in four stages. First, the natures of public policy and ethics are analyzed to reveal their conceptual affinity and shared moral ends, and thus the relevance of ethical inquiry in the public policy process. Second, this analysis, supplemented by an examination of moral reasoning in a pluralistic community, provides a conceptual foundation for public policy ethics. Third, a normative framework for public policy ethics is proposed and defended in a discussion which identifies the contributions and limitations of ethics in the public policy forum. Fourth, this framework is applied to selected AIDS policy issues to demonstrate how public policy ethics works in practice