Ethical Duties in Disaster Preparedness

e202210071

Authors

Keywords:

Anticipation, Disaster ethics, Duties, Prevention, Preparedness, Planning, Public Health, Responsibility, Vulnerability

Abstract

The experience of the COVID-19 pandemic and the horizon of expectations in relation to climate change reminds us that it is a collective responsibility to anticipate to the best of our ability and knowledge the risks of foreseeable disasters and their potential impacts on vulnerable communities. The article will examine the meaning and status of moral duties regarding disaster preparedness by adopting a disaster ethics approach which draws on the interrelationship of bioethics with public health ethics and looks at the full cycle of disaster management and the corresponding cycle of protection of victims and professionals. After discussing some normative controversies accompanying well-known classifications of disasters and characterizing the ethical turn to preparedness in disaster management, it will be argued that preparedness duties include obligations relating to planning, anticipation, and prevention of disasters and that they are derivative and positive duties involving a series of prospective, shared and institutionally mediated responsibilities.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

En el artículo se asume la clasificación del CRED (véase https://www.emdat.be/classification), que incluye las epidemias entre los desastres naturales. Existe una diferencia entre catástrofes y desastres; con todo, en el texto se usan ambos términos como sinónimos.

Entre los observatorios de monitoreo diario con acceso abierto, véase Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS, United Nations and the European Commission-https://www.gdacs.org/) y ReliefWeb (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) - https://reliefweb.int/disasters).

Forzieri G, Cescatti A, Silva FB, Feyen L. Increasing risk over time of weather-related hazards to the European population: a data-driven prognostic study. Lancet Planet Health. 2017 Aug;1(5): e200-e208. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(17)30082-30087

Arcos González PI, Castro Delgado R, Busto Prado R. Desastres y salud pública: un abordaje desde el marco teórico de la epidemiología. Rev Esp Salud Pública 2002; 76 (2): 121-132. Disponible en: https://scielo.isciii.es/pdf/resp/v76n2/a06v76n2.pdf

Dawson A, Verweij M, eds. Ethics, Prevention, and Public Health. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Faden R, Bernstein J, Shebaya S. Public Health Ethics. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2022 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), Disponible en: https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2022/entries/publichealth-ethics/

O’Mathúna DP, Gordjin B, Clarke M, eds. Disaster Bioethics: Normative Issues When Nothing Is Normal, Springer, Dordrecht, 2014.

United Nations Office for Disaster and Risk Reduction. Terminology on Disaster Risk Reduction. United Nations, 2017. Disponible en: https://www.undrr.org/terminology/disaster

ONU, Consejo Económico y Social. Progresos realizados para lograr los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible-Informe del Secretario General. E/2021/58. United Nations: New York, 2021, p. 4. Disponible en: https://undocs.org/es/E/2021/58

Satkoske VB, Kappel DA, DeVita MA, Disaster Ethics. Shifting Priorities in an Unstable and Dangerous Environment. Critical Care Clinics 2019, 35 (4): 717-725.

Hesselman M. Establishing a Full ‘Cycle of Protection’ for Disaster Victims: Preparedness, Response and Recovery according to Regional and International Human Rights Supervisory Bodies. Tilburg Law Review 2013, 18: 117-119. http://doi.org/10.1163/22112596-01802005

Kelman I. Disaster by Choice: How Our Actions Turn Natural Hazards Into Catastrophes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.

Barilan Y, Brusa M, Halperin P. Triage in Disaster Medicine: Ethical Strategies in Various Scenarios. En: O’Mathúna DP, Gordjin B, Clarke M, eds. Disaster Bioethics. Dordrecht, Springer, 2014, p. 49-63.

Zack N. Ethics for Disaster. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009.

Suk JE, Vaughan, EC, Cook RG, Semenza JC. Natural disasters and infectious disease in Europe: a literature review to identify cascading risk pathways. Eur J Public Health 2019, 30 (5): 928–935. Disponible en: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31169886/

Croxton RD. Medical Vulnerability in Natural Disasters: The Ethics of Responsibility and Response. Wake Forest University, 2018. Disponible en: https://wakespace.lib.wfu.edu/bitstream/handle/10339/93057/Croxton_wfu_0248M_11274.pdf

Jones L. The Big Ones: How Natural Disasters Have Shaped Us. New York: Anchor Books, 2018.

Gil J. Triaje y ética de desastres. Télos. Revista iberoamericana de estudios utilitaristas 2020, 24 (1-2): 1-16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3864-5_4

Hortal J, Padilla J, Melguizo M, Ausín T, Cruz M, López de la Vieja MT, Puyol Á, Rodríguez-Arias D, Tamayo-Velázquez MI, Triviño R. La Eficiencia no basta. Análisis ético y recomendaciones para la distribución de recursos escasos en situación de pandemia. Gaceta Sanitaria 2021, 35 (6): 525-533. Disponible en: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gaceta.2020.07.006

Kibbe B. Aging and Disasters. En: Holstein M, Parks J, Waymack M. eds. Ethics, Aging and Society. New York: Springer Publishing, 2011. 255-279.

Dranseika V. Moral Responsibility for Natural Disasters. Human Affairs 2016, 26: 73–79. doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/humaff-2016-0009

Crossweller M, Tschakert P. Disaster management and the need for a reinstated social contract of shared responsibility. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 2021, 63: 102440. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102440

Smiley M. Collective Responsibility. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2017 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.). Disponible en: https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2017/entries/collective-responsibility/

Jennings B, Arras JD, Barrett DH, Ellis BA. Emergency ethics. Public health preparedness and response. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.

Ley 17/2015, de 9 de julio, del Sistema Nacional de Protección Civil. Jefatura del Estado BOE núm. 164, de 10 de julio de 2015. Referencia: BOE-A-2015-7730.

Ryus C, Baruch J. The Duty of Mind: Ethical Capacity in a Time of Crisis. Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2018, 12(5): 657-662. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/dmp.2017.120

Healy A, Malhotra N. Myopic Voters and Natural Disaster Policy. American Political Science Review 2009, 103: 387-406. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055409990104

Aronsson-Storrier M, da Costa K. Regulating disasters? The role of international law in disaster prevention and management. Disaster Prevention and Management 2017, 26 (5): 502-513. https://doi.org/10.1108/DPM-09-2017-0218

UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. 2015. Disponible en: https://www.undrr.org/publication/sendai-framework-disaster-risk-reduction-2015-2030

ONU, Consejo Económico y Social. Progresos realizados para lograr los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible-Informe del Secretario General. E/2021/58. United Nations: New York, 2021, p. 23. Disponible en: https://undocs.org/es/E/2021/58

Lozano Miralles J, Carazo Liébana M. Ámbitos de la seguridad nacional: Protección ante emergencias y desastres. Boletín Oficial del Estado, Madrid, 2022.

Published

2022-10-05

How to Cite

1.
Gil Martín FJ. Ethical Duties in Disaster Preparedness: e202210071. Rev Esp Salud Pública [Internet]. 2022 Oct. 5 [cited 2024 Nov. 5];96:12 páginas. Available from: https://ojs.sanidad.gob.es/index.php/resp/article/view/250