Prudence or precaution are ethics values used when we must act out of incomplete information. The UN Earth Summit (Rio Declaration, 1992, Principle 15) formalised this when it stated: “Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.” This is used in science, medicine and engineering when concrete action is required and information is incomplete. https://ethics.iit.edu/NanoEthicsBank/node/865

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