Disaster Bioethics ― Normative Issues When Nothing Is Normal

Disaster strikes: In 2004 it was the Indian Ocean tsunami; 2005, Hurricane Katrina; 2010, the earthquake in Haiti and floods in Pakistan; and this year? According to the International Disasters Database, almost 2800 disasters occurred between 2000 and 2005, compared to approximately 2700 during all of the 1990s. The number of people impacted by disasters tripled between 1990 and 2003. In that year, more than 250 million people were directly affected by a disaster. Disasters cause immense pain and suffering, along with widespread death and destruction. They require an immediate response, but those responses raise ethical questions. How do doctors and nurses decide whom to care for? What care do the victims need first? How do international agencies decide what to send? What ethical responsibilities do the media bear? Is research justified during a disaster? If so, how will research ethics standards be maintained? Such ethical questions need urgent and extensive discussion. This book provides in-depth and practical reflection on these and other challenging ethical questions. It presents the deliberations of scholars and practitioners who gathered at the Brocher Center in Geneva, Switzerland in 2011 and formulated the Brocher Principles of Disaster Bioethics. This book offers their findings to guide those concerned about responding ethically to the healthcare needs of disaster victims.