The COVID-19 pandemic has ushered ethics to the forefront of both medical education and public discourse. In addition to illuminating persistent moral questions about fairness, access to healthcare, and citizens’ responsibilities to one another’s well-being, the pandemic emerged within the context of profound social divisions and disagreements regarding core values.
This book explores subjects that have been accorded less attention, such as the implications of surveillance, the moral dimensions of conspiracy theories, and the moral distress and injury that have led many healthcare professionals to rethink their vocation. Each chapter of the volume presents the background and research surrounding specific moral dilemmas, e.g., school closures, rationing, privacy, and surveillance. These issues are subsequently examined within the context of various ethical models, including utilitarianism, deontology, virtue ethics, moral foundations theory, principlism, Rawls’s theory of justice, and communitarianism.
The book will be beneficial to students of health professions, philosophy, bioethics, and for those who value informed citizenship.
