Hobsen's Choice in Disaster Medical Ethics

Abstract

Medical ethics is founded on three basic principles; which are the principles of beneficence, non-maleficence and respect for autonomy. The priority of these principles may change with different circumstances, such as in disasters, which sometimes may lead to challenges that are quite different from day today medical practices. Disasters make the medical practitioner more vulnerable to hazards; the hazardous working environment causes extraordinary additional stresses that a practitioner may not undergo in a normal environment. Disasters may lead to ethical challenges that are different from usual medical practices. In addition, disaster situations are related to public health ethics more than medical ethics, and accordingly may require stronger effort to achieve a balance between individual and collective rights. The author researched extensively on ethical consideration of Disaster Medicine. This paper aims to review some ethical dilemmas that arise in disasters and mainly focuses on health services. Disasters vary considerably with respect to their time, place and extent. Therefore, ethical questions may not always have `one-size-fits-all` answers. On the other hand, embedding ethical values and principles in every aspect of health-care is of vital importance. It is only by making efforts before disasters, that ethical challenges can be minimized in disaster responses.