On pandemics and the duty to care: whose duty? who cares?

BMC Medical Ethics 7 (1):5 (2006)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

BackgroundAs a number of commentators have noted, SARS exposed the vulnerabilities of our health care systems and governance structures. Health care professionals (HCPs) and hospital systems that bore the brunt of the SARS outbreak continue to struggle with the aftermath of the crisis. Indeed, HCPs – both in clinical care and in public health – were severely tested by SARS. Unprecedented demands were placed on their skills and expertise, and their personal commitment to their profession was severely tried. Many were exposed to serious risk of morbidity and mortality, as evidenced by the World Health Organization figures showing that approximately 30% of reported cases were among HCPs, some of whom died from the infection. Despite this challenge, professional codes of ethics are silent on the issue of duty to care during communicable disease outbreaks, thus providing no guidance on what is expected of HCPs or how they ought to approach their duty to care in the face of risk.DiscussionIn the aftermath of SARS and with the spectre of a pandemic avian influenza, it is imperative that we (re)consider the obligations of HCPs for patients with severe infectious diseases, particularly diseases that pose risks to those providing care. It is of pressing importance that organizations representing HCPs give clear indication of what standard of care is expected of their members in the event of a pandemic. In this paper, we address the issue of special obligations of HCPs during an infectious disease outbreak. We argue that there is a pressing need to clarify the rights and responsibilities of HCPs in the current context of pandemic flu preparedness, and that these rights and responsibilities ought to be codified in professional codes of ethics. Finally, we present a brief historical accounting of the treatment of the duty to care in professional health care codes of ethics.SummaryAn honest and critical examination of the role of HCPs during communicable disease outbreaks is needed in order to provide guidelines regarding professional rights and responsibilities, as well as ethical duties and obligations. With this paper, we hope to open the social dialogue and advance the public debate on this increasingly urgent issue.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,593

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

A Duty to Adopt?Daniel Friedrich - 2013 - Journal of Applied Philosophy 30 (1):25-39.
Many Duties of Care—Or A Duty of Care? Notes from the Underground.David Howarth - 2006 - Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 26 (3):449-472.
Can I Have a Duty to Believe in God?Jonathan Harrison - 1957 - Philosophy 32 (122):241 - 252.
Responsibility in Negligence: Why the Duty of Care is Not a Duty “To Try”.Ori J. Herstein - 2010 - Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence 23 (2):403-428.
Duties of Care—Do they Really Exist?Nicholas J. McBride - 2004 - Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 24 (3):417-441.
Patients' duties.Michael J. Meyer - 1992 - Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 17 (5):541-555.
Prima Facie and Actual Duty.Arthur M. Wheeler - 1977 - Analysis 37 (3):142 - 144.
The Moral Duty to Buy Health Insurance.Tina Rulli, Ezekiel Emanuel & David Wendler - 2012 - Journal of the American Medical Association 308 (2):137-138.

Analytics

Added to PP
2014-03-18

Downloads
40 (#347,838)

6 months
5 (#246,492)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Mark Bernstein
Purdue University

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references