The Pandemic and Ethics -- Examining the Right Thing To Do

In this time of opening up the country during the COVID-19 pandemic, ethics becomes a primary issue. “Ethics” is the investigation and analysis of moral principles and dilemmas. The term ethics can refer to rules or guidelines that establish what conduct is right and wrong for individuals and for groups.

Systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior is fraught with disagreement and varied interpretations. It should be understood that no matter what choices are made to address a pandemic, there will be skepticism, criticism, and differences of opinion. There is no way to avoid the dilemmas posed by acting without full scientific knowledge.

Still, the only workable safeguard is the adoption of ethical values in formulating and implementing public health decisions. Social distancing, facemasking, quarantining, and testing – all of the employment of these measures meant to stop the spread of the pandemic ultimately rest on the ethics of the individual. The “right thing to do” under this novel and deadly set of circumstances comes down to “you.”

The ethical dilemma you face, like any other, involves choices between one good and another good. For example, the choice between continuing to shelter in place to stop mass infection and reopening the economy to preserve jobs is a choice between two “goods,” not a clear-cut moral decision of proper conduct.

Unlike many human-rights situations, the decisions made during COVID-19 do not involve choosing between doing the right thing, on the one hand, and clearly violating people’s rights, on the other. Instead, they are difficult decisions because both choices are good ones. Western societies that are generally in health care have the utmost respect for individual choices. The collective interests embodied in traditional public health measures are less often acknowledged despite their clear and strong history.

But now, America, like so many parts of the world, is NOT “in good health.” Far from it, the virus still rages, taking hundreds, even thousands of lives in a day in its cruel devastation. And, although public health measures are inevitably going to be imperfect, the basic question YOU face as an individual is: “What should be YOUR primary focus of moral regard?

COVID-19 points to the need to move beyond attempts to balance individual freedom with collective need. The true, good life cannot be reduced to individual happiness. We are interdependent humans who should respect all life … and that means respecting the common existence of everyone. Putting others in danger denies that most important moral obligation we have as human beings – brotherly love. When both the moral and legal spirit lean towards this understanding of common humanity, the question is not if we should extend our hand to protect, but how.

YOUR ethical obligation related to care for the vulnerable places strict limits on what YOU CAN DO, indeed, on your personal freedoms. However, I believe the denial of some freedoms in this unusual and extreme case is ethically warranted. It prevents the unforgivable domination, exploitation, and abandonment of others.

Here, in Southern Ohio, YOU likely haven't had COVID-19. YOU likely don't personally know a person who has had the virus and, certainly, YOU do not know a county resident who has died from the virus. You may consider the virus “just another flu” or even a political “hoax.” However, those mindsets still do not release you from the reality of the spread of death and devastation.

Here is a kind and sobering fact – YOU do not know how the precautions YOU are taking during the virus may save the lives of vulnerable others. These lives could reside anywhere, as this pandemic knows no boundaries of counties or states or countries.

The individual freedoms YOU lose during this time are real concerns. The loss of these privileges evoke valid grievances. Restricting them hurts all of us, and some people are paying a tremendous price in loss of income and in emotional distress. Yet, most of these damaged individuals are weathering the storm with an understanding of their moral obligations to the common good. How they must be revered. They are truly American heroes.

YOU can filter YOUR ethical obligations to reactions to COVID-19 through all the local, state, and national regulations and recommendations, and still, YOU, as an individual, must decide the actions (or lack of actions) YOU will take. In my opinion, doing the right thing means does not mean going to crowded vacation spots, attending mass gatherings, ignoring the continued need to social distance and facemask, and, instead, continuing to follow good health measures to stop the pandemic.

Theologian and philosopher Albert Schweitzer once said: “A man is truly ethical only when he obeys the compulsion to help all life which he is able to assist, and shrinks from injuring anything that lives.” I think Schwietzer's words speak to Americans in this time of turmoil and indecision. Still, the decision to assist others is up to YOU.