Turner, Trudy R. (Ed.) (2005). Biological Anthropology and Ethics: From Repatriation to Genetic Identity. State University of New York Press.

Biological anthropologists face an array of ethical issues as they engage in fieldwork around the world. In this volume human biologists, geneticists, paleontologists, and primatologists confront their involvement with, and obligations to, their research subjects, their discipline, society, and the environment. Those working with human populations explore such issues as who speaks for a group, community consultation and group consent, the relationship between expatriate communities and the community of origin, and disclosing the identity of both individuals and communities. 

Those working with skeletal remains discuss issues that include access to and ownership of fossil material. Primatologists are concerned about the well-being of their subjects in laboratory and captive situations, and must address yet another set of issues regarding endangered animal populations and conservation in field situations. The first comprehensive account of the ethical issues facing! biological anthropologists today, Biological Anthropology and Ethics opens the door for discussions of ethical issues in professional life.

Gowthorpe, Catherine and John Blake (1998) Ethical Issues in Accounting: Professional Ethics. New York: Routledge

“[…] Accounting is an area of human activity which tends to be regarded by some of its practitioners as neutral and value-free, a reporting function which requires the application of complex technical requirements but no moral involvement beyond adherence to a set of precepts in the form of an ethical code. Practising accountants do not tend to look beyond the narrow confines of the code to consider their roles as moral agents; in fact, it seems likely that they do not consider accounting to be an activity that really has any substantial moral dimension, even though in other areas of their lives they may be deeply concerned with moral issues. This attitude has been identified as ‘ethical dissonance’ by McPhail and Gray (1996) whose empirical work indicates that accounting students, and by implication accountants, regard accounting as a morally neutral area, a ‘separate category of experience’.

However, it is clear to some critics, at least, that accounting is very much more important than the technical standards for undertaking it might imply, and that it has a significant role in the construction of reality in the mainstream (e.g. Hines 1988). It is difficult to overestimate the significance of its role in constructing economic reality because the vocabulary and conventions of accounting permeate our experience of everyday reality so thoroughly. In the United Kingdom of recent years, terms such as ‘profitability’, ‘audit’, ‘cost-cutting’, ‘required rate of return’, ‘UK plc’, ‘uneconomic’, ‘bottom line’ and ‘earnings’ have resonated to an unprecedented degree through the lives of many. The vocabulary of the primary accounting statements has acquired a high degree of authority and acceptance, even where the individual terms are unclear or are misunderstood. Moreover, the language of the private sector has entered the public sector, where the ideas and terminology of accountability and audit have been thoroughly absorbed. The idea of audit has been exported from its financial accounting context into an unprecedently wide range of settings (Power 1997), as a means of responding to risk.

These developments may be part of a profound movement in society, the true significance of which may not emerge until we can look back with the benefit of hindsight. Accountants themselves can hardly be expected to bear all the responsibility for the fact that the tools and terminology of their craft have been borrowed and transplanted into so many different organisational and societal contexts. Nevertheless, the outcome is such that accounting’s role as a constructor of reality has acquired an unprecedented importance.” (From the Introduction, pp. 1-2)

Clayton, Phillip and Schloss, Jeffrey (Eds.) (2004). Evolution And Ethics: Human Morality In Biological And Religious Perspective. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Christians frequently resist evolutionary theory, beliving it to be incompatible with the core values of their tradition. But what exactly are the tensions between evolutiona nd religious faith in the area of human morality? Evolution and Ethics examines the burning questions of human morality from the standpoint of Christian thought and contemporary biology, asking where the two perspectives diverge and where they may complement one another. 

Respresenting a significant dialogue between world-class scientists, philosophers, and theologians, this volume explores the central features of biological and religious accounts of human morality, introducing the leading theories and locating the key points of contention. Central to these discussions are the questions of whether human actions are ever genuinely selfless, whether there is something in the moral life that trancends biological function, and whether one can sensibly speak of an overall purpose to the course of evolution.Certain to engage scholars, students, and general readers alike, Evolution and Ethics offers a balanced, levelheaded, constructive approach to an often divisive debate. (From back cover of the book)

Newton, Lisa H. (2005) Business Ethics and the Natural Environment. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

Business Ethics and the Natural Environment examines the present status of relations between corporate enterprise and the natural environment in the world today. Discusses such questions as: What obligations does a corporation have toward the environment? To respect entities unprotected by law? To care about future generations? Argues that environmentally-friendly business practices yield dividends exceeding expectations, and that the competitive firm of the 21st century will follow “green” standards. Provides a background in ethics, a survey of business ethics, an account of environmental philosophy, an overview of environmental legal issues, and an account of the problems associated with globalization.

Review: “With business’s renewed focus on sustainable growth, Newton’s hopeful book comes at the right time, providing us theoretically sound, eloquently presented, and practically wise frameworks and conclusions.” Dennis J. Moberg, Santa Clara University, and President, Society for Business Ethics

“This excellent book perfectly balances philosophical and case study analysis to help students explore within today’s political and legal framework the responsibilities of business and of individuals to the natural environment.” Mark Sagoff, University of Maryland

Here is an excerpt from the book’s Preface:

“Why I Wrote This Book

First, of course, there are the urgent practical, social, and moral problems. Things are not going well for the world. There is war, there is terror, and there is political instability. But the world has always had war, terror, and political instability; all these we have known since our youth. In addition to all these, underlying and exacerbating them, there is also an increasing sense that the natural environment of the globe is under terrible pressure, and this fear is quite new, no more than half a century old. There are new logging ventures in equatorial Africa, which enrich corrupt elites while slicing roads through forests recently untouched, making paths for the poachers who think nothing of killing the last wild gorillas, chimpanzees, and white rhinoceros. New governments in South America are pressing for economic development, which may come only at the expense of the Amazonian rainforest, home to half the species on earth. The Arctic National Wildlife Reserve may be invaded to acquire new reserves of oil. They say the great fisheries off New England are fished out. There are graphs that show that the earth is getting warmer, probably because of all the new carbon we are putting in the air through burning fossil fuels. If it gets much warmer we may lose some island nations, and the people of the Seychelles are very upset at that. They say the great coral reefs are bleaching, beginning to die. Hunters may take the last whales from the ocean, the last tigers from the forests, and eventually the last wild elephants from the African plains. We do not seem to be able to get a real handle on the problems. As stated, they seem real and objective enough, and no matter how serious or otherwise they turn out to be, they should be addressed and brought under control. Yet every statement of the problems (including in this paragraph), let alone every proposed solution, seems politically tinged, part of some political agenda, therefore safely ignored by those of the opposite political persuasion, and no one seems to know how to break through that perception.

We need methods to sort out the problems and the passionately held positions on the problems. One reason to write this book, then, is to analyze the conflicts that bedevil us in our daily lives, and see if formulations, and sensible courses of action, can be found that will dissolve the dilemmas and allow us to proceed peacefully.” (pp. vii-viii)