Summary of the 1. Asian Workshop on the Ethical Dimensions of the Radiological Protection System

Kun-Woo Cho gave a panorama of the 1. Asian Workshop held in Daejeon on 27-28 August 2013 and he focused mainly on the results of the discussions carried out within the three Working Groups. In each group the discussion initially addressed on two questions: What issues of radiation protection refer to ethics? What are the ethical values (explicit and implicit), which underlie the system of radiological protection? WG 1 focused on the fact that the RP system includes judgments that refer to ethical values, but they are implicitly and un-clearly presented in the ICRP recommendations; on the dialogues about the foundation, objectives and rationality of RP system, which should be pushed to facilitate the understanding of the system for RP specialists and stakeholders; and on RP culture and wise behaviours vis-a-vis radiation, which should be promoted in the society. WG 2 discussed the need of ethical consideration in the system of radiological protection; the need to revisit whether individual rights to happiness or justice had been respected; the need to provide more rationales to support important judgments in the RP system, and the need to refine the term 'members of the public' to distinguish informed individuals with certain benefit in return. WG 3 noted that strong parallels between bio-ethics and RP ethics exist. It has also agreed that simplicity, education and communication efforts are required in the RP system to overcome public misunderstanding and to enhance acceptability. With respect to the values of RP ethics attention was given to tolerance of people's views, human dignity, justice, respect for persons, beneficence, prudence, understanding/simplicity and well-being. The presentation reported a view of the conclusions obtained from the 1. Asian Workshop focused on communication, well-being, tolerability and acceptability of risk as the main issues addressed