[Some philosophical assumptions of the debate on the ethics of environmental epidemiology]

The aim of this paper is to analyse the existing debate on the ethical problems concerning environmental epidemiological research. The analysis is mostly focused on the philosophical assumptions of this debate. We try to show that, beside the traditional deontological considerations, it is important to formulate other considerations on different issues. We try to demonstrate, on the basis of some reflections on the structure of environmental epidemiology and on science in general, that there is room for subjective choices of researchers in the production of data. We finally show how some of the subjective choices are grounded in moral options and how those moral values can belong to different moral theories.