Functional Measurement in the Field of Empirical Ethics

This paper presents the proposal of an empirical approach to ethics derived from a psychological theory of human judgment proposed by Norman Anderson. It shows how the methodology specific to this theory -functional measurement- makes it possible to characterize the various personal positions that exist in all societies regarding public health problems. The main results of three studies carried out in three different countries (Guinea, France, and Colombia) on various problems are presented as an illustration of what this approach can offer. These analyses focused on three deliberately very different problems: (a) the duty to care for infected patients in the event of a pandemic that puts at risk the lives of the health professionals, (b) the acceptability of postmortem reproduction in the specific context of fallen soldiers, and (c) the acceptability of physicianassisted suicide.