Symposium on ethics and public health Epidemiology and moral philosophy

To an increasing extent ethical controversies affect and sometimes obstruct public health work and epidemiological research. In order to improve communication between the concernedparties a modelfor identification and analysis of ethical conflicts in individual-based research has been worked out in co-operation between epidemiologists and moral philosophers. The model has two dimensions. One dimension specifies relevant ethical principles (as beneficence, nonmaleficence, autonomy and justice). The other dimension specifies the groups ofpersons involved in the conflict under consideration (for example: the study-population, individuals who may benefitfrom the results, the researchers and their personnel, the community at large). The model has been applied to theproblem oflegitimacy ofcase-register research and to problems in psychiatric health services research as well as epidemiological research.