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Chapter 52 - Public Ethics in Emergencies: Learning from the COVID-19 Pandemic

from Section 6 - Designing, Leading, and Managing Responses to Emergencies and Pandemics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2024

By
Jonathan Montgomery
Edited by
Richard Williams ,
Verity Kemp ,
Keith Porter ,
Tim Healing  and
John Drury
Richard Williams
Affiliation:
University of South Wales
Verity Kemp
Affiliation:
Independent Health Emergency Planning Consultant
Keith Porter
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
Tim Healing
Affiliation:
Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London
John Drury
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
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Summary

This chapter explores the lessons that can be drawn from the ways in which bioethical governance operated during the COVID-19 pandemic. It examines the way in which our thinking is framed as this may substantially determine the policy choices that we make, it explores the contemporary context of public reasoning, and finally it examines the governance of ethical concerns. It proposes that there must be openness and transparency about the ethical issues and approaches that are being applied. It recognises that people do not necessarily need to agree with government decisions, but they do need to accept that they are reasonable and responsible. These principles can be brought together by using the techniques of deliberative democracy to review the ethical frameworks that have been developed during the pandemic for revision as necessary. Lessons can be drawn to help people prepare better for the governance of bioethical deliberations in future emergencies.

Keywords

ethical frameworkgovernancemoralpublic ethicssocial media
Type
Chapter
Information
Major Incidents, Pandemics and Mental Health
The Psychosocial Aspects of Health Emergencies, Incidents, Disasters and Disease Outbreaks
 , pp. 394 - 402
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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