Centre for Social Ethics & Policy, University of Manchester, M13 9PL, UK.
J Med Ethics. 2013 May;39(5):312-5. doi: 10.1136/medethics-2012-101191.
When writing about policy, do you think in green or white? If not, I recommend that you do. I suggest that writers and journal editors should explicitly label every policy ethics paper either 'green' or 'white'. A green paper is an unconstrained exploration of a policy question. The controversial 'After-birth abortion' paper is an example. Had it been labelled as 'green', readers could have understood what Giubilini and Minerva explained later: that it was a discussion of philosophical ideas, and not a policy proposal advocating infanticide. A serious policy proposal should be labelled by writer(s) and editor(s) as 'white'. Its purpose should be to influence policy. In order to influence policy, I suggest three essential, and two desirable, characteristics of any white paper. Most importantly, a white paper should be set in the context in which the policy is to be made and applied.
在撰写政策文章时，你是用绿色思维还是白色思维？如果没有，我建议你这样做。我建议作者和期刊编辑应该明确将每一篇政策伦理论文标记为“绿色”或“白色”。绿色文件是对政策问题的无约束探索。有争议的“死后堕胎”论文就是一个例子。如果它被标记为“绿色”，读者就可以理解吉比利尼和米内瓦后来解释的内容：这是对哲学思想的讨论，而不是提倡杀婴的政策建议。一个严肃的政策建议应该由作者和编辑标记为“白色”。其目的应该是影响政策。为了影响政策，我建议任何白皮书都应具有三个必要特征和两个理想特征。最重要的是，白皮书应该在制定和应用政策的背景下进行。
