Toward a framework for defining and resolving ethical issues in the protection of communities involved in primary prevention projects.

Ethical issues flow from and are embedded in contexts of practice. Contexts of practice refer to the diverse social settings where interventions occur. Primary prevention activities require new professional roles in these diverse social settings. These new roles engage the professional in new activities, which in turn allow new ethical issues to arise. This article takes an ecological perspective on ethical issues arising from the enactment of new preventive roles intended to affect groups or communities. Within this perspective, the concepts of context and culture take on special conceptual significance. Four ecological assumptions about preventive interventions intended to affect groups or communities are offered as a means of framing ethical issues in such interventions. Finally, several approaches to developing ecological knowledge about the contexts of practice are presented as ways of furthering our ability to conceptualize and cope with ethical issues in preventive interventions intended to affect groups or communities.