Thinking ethically about pandemics: a matter of public health and social ethics

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.23925/1677-1222.2020vol20i2a8

Keywords:

Social ethics. Pandemic ethics, Health disparities, Racism, Poverty, Social justice

Abstract

This essay argues that any ethical approach to mitigating the negative effects of pandemics must give detailed and sustained attention to those who are on the margins of society. This means tackling widespread racism and concentrated poverty in our body politics. The challenges resulting from pandemics are not merely ones of public health but are simultaneously matters of social ethics. The aim of this essay is to highlight important values from religious social ethics for responding ethically to pandemics. In this work, I do not undertake the task of formulating and prescribing national policies that egalitarian democratic societies should adopt in pandemic situations. Instead, the paper focuses on how religious social ethics can help reimagine social life and communal practices by focusing on the margins to mitigate some of the negative effects caused by public health disasters.

 

Author Biography

Patrick T. Smith, Due University

Associate Research Professor of Theological Ethics and Bioethics, Associate Faculty at the Trent Center
for Bioethics, Humanities, and History of Medicine, and Senior Fellow at the Kenan Institute for Ethics (Duke
University, USA). PhD in Philosophy (Wayne State University, USA). 

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Published

2020-09-28

Issue

Vol. 20 No. 2 (2020): Espiritualidade e saúde

Section

Seção Temática

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