My teacher said we should use contemporary, topical examples to help illustrate ethical teachings. Is a pandemic like Covid 19 an issue that falls under bioethics (because issues like triaging with limited resources- allowing some people to die because they are old in favour of young/ ventilators, etc) or environmental ethics (because the spread of COVID-19 has been hastened and exacerbated by humanity's long-term assault on the natural world- e.g overreliance on industrialised meat processing/ jumping species from overconsumption and overcrowding, etc) ? Or could I use it for either (I am doing bioethics for Islam and environmental ethics for Buddhism), provided I have sufficient evidence and take the right angle?
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is Covid 19/ pandemics environmental ethics or bioethics? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter dudeface1
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It's definitely easier to look for evidence on Bioethics by presenting data on countries allowing the use of vaccines for compassionate use only due to lack of conclusive findings and the reports on deaths after vaccines were introduced to the public. I suggest citing related documents and laws on vaccine development like the one from CDC
Bioethics also brings in the issues around herd immunity - getting vaccinated not only to reduce one's own risk but the risk to others from transmission and to protect those who are unable to vaccinated for some reason.
Ethics around COVID can also touch on issues of competing rights. The protesters on the weekend would argue for a right to free speech, to freedom of movement and association, and for personal autonomy if choosing not be vaccinated... but their actions will likely lead to restrictions on movement on many others being extended, will likely cause a spike in transmissions, will risk transmission to their families / close contacts.
The ethics of behaviour of those spreading misinformation (whether knowingly or under a mistaken belief in its accuracy) is another area that could be explored. A distressing story on the effects of misinformation that I recently read:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anti-vaccine-conspiracy-theories-divorce_n_60faf8b6e4b05ff8cfc8086b
What are the ethical response when one partner is threatening another over vaccination, be it a threat of divorce or of separation from children? What of those spreading the misinformation that led a husband to demand that his wife be tested for HIV, believing that the vaccination would have deliberately infected her? That is just one case on misinformation that one might expect anyone to disregard, and yet there are many people who are being taken in by the most preposterous of claims.
Ethics around COVID can also touch on issues of competing rights. The protesters on the weekend would argue for a right to free speech, to freedom of movement and association, and for personal autonomy if choosing not be vaccinated... but their actions will likely lead to restrictions on movement on many others being extended, will likely cause a spike in transmissions, will risk transmission to their families / close contacts.
The ethics of behaviour of those spreading misinformation (whether knowingly or under a mistaken belief in its accuracy) is another area that could be explored. A distressing story on the effects of misinformation that I recently read:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anti-vaccine-conspiracy-theories-divorce_n_60faf8b6e4b05ff8cfc8086b
What are the ethical response when one partner is threatening another over vaccination, be it a threat of divorce or of separation from children? What of those spreading the misinformation that led a husband to demand that his wife be tested for HIV, believing that the vaccination would have deliberately infected her? That is just one case on misinformation that one might expect anyone to disregard, and yet there are many people who are being taken in by the most preposterous of claims.