Ethics and Alcohol

Abstract

The problem that alcohol presents was set out at the beginning of this book and, thus far, we have explored several aspects of the ethics and responsibility of government and the industry. This chapter will begin to focus on the underlying ethical theory, initially through reflection on the perspective of public policy. It will first examine the 2007 report by the Nuffield Centre for Bioethics on Public Health Policy. It will then argue for a broader approach that focuses the ethical debate on social responsibility and the theme of shared responsibility. Through this, we will return to corporate responsibility and the responsibility of the industry as a whole. We conclude that the debate around self-regulation still has some way to go, and that the essential focus of this debate should be around shared responsibility and how this can best be negotiated in practice.