PoPulationand Public HealtH etHics

The state has a moral obligation to protect the public’s health through regulatory
oversight, including setting appropriate protective standards; providing
appropriate resources to monitor compliance with these standards; and providing
effective tools for modifying the behavior of those who do not comply. 2
In this case, standards were set (i.e, there was substantial food-safety legislation
in place, including codes of practice for inspections and regulatory
procedures); the local government entrusted to implement these standards,
however, did not ensure that there was an effective system (in terms of resources,
procedures and competent staff) to monitor and regulate compliance.
They therefore failed in their regulatory ethics obligations and so placed the
community at substantial risk.
In addition, there are a number of individual failures of professional ethics.
First, as competence in HaCCP auditing is a basic expectation of these inspectors,
the professional certification process was inadequate. Second, these
inspectors did not fulfill their obligation to undertake ongoing professional
development activities to ensure competency. Third, while it should have
been clear to the inspectors that they were out-of-their-depth and that the local
regulatory system was inadequate, they did not raise concerns. Schwartz 3
would argue that their silence fails a further ethical test that places a high
burden of responsibility on public officials.
Scenario shift
As this case involved both systemic and individual failures, consider how
the ethical issues of this case would change in the context of the following
hypothetical scenarios:
» The inspectors were well-trained, competent and able to detect problems,
but they believed the organizational system in which they
worked placed the public at risk due to its ineffectiveness.
» The system was functional and was able to identify the ineffective
performance of the inspectors through monitoring their performance.
» The business involved was categorized as presenting a lower risk to
the public due to not servicing vulnerable groups such as children,
hospital patients and the elderly.
An E.coli outbreak in Wales
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