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Foot-and-mouth disease has now arrived here in the Netherlands, almost certainly from Britain. Some ethical issues associated with the outbreak have been in the international media. It seems a failure of this list, reflecting a general failure of academic approaches, to raise more fundamental issues. Instead there is general acquiescence in the taboo, created by government, media and society. It is not at all clear that there is any moral obligation to help control the outbreak. It is not at all clear, that it is a bad thing for the planet: it may be a bad thing for the European farmers lobbies, but that is not an moral standard. However, ethics is what academics define as ethics, and so far, the academy disdains to question the official line. -- Paul Treanor http://web.inter.nl.net/users/Paul.Treanor/