| Abstract: | Innovating to improve public service is regarded as potentially obligatory, not merely laudable, part of good public management. However, the moral content of an obligation to innovate is not well understood. How can we innovate ethically? In academic bioethics and research ethics, the obligatory nature of the ‘research imperative’ is discussed and criticized. In this article, I outline the content of what I call the ‘innovation imperative’ and draw a parallel between the innovation imperative and the research imperative, arguing that the ethical principles that govern innovation in public service are similar to those governing research imperative in biomedical sciences. |
