Journal article
Ethical reasoning during a pandemic: results of a five country European study
- Abstract:
- Introduction: There has been no work that identifies the hidden or implicit normative assumptions on which participants base their views during the COVID-19 pandemic, and their reasoning and how they reach moral or ethical judgements. Our analysis focused on participants’ moral values, ethical reasoning and normative positions around the transmission of SARS-CoV-2.Methods: We analyzed data from 177 semi-structured interviews across five European countries (Germany, Ireland, Italy, Switzerland and the United Kingdom) conducted in April 2020.Results: Findings are structured in four themes: ethical contention in the context of normative uncertainty; patterns of ethical deliberation when contemplating restrictions and measures to reduce viral transmission; moral judgements regarding “good” and “bad” people; using existing structures of meaning for moral reasoning and ethical judgement.Discussion: Moral tools are an integral part of people’s reaction to and experience of a pandemic. ‘Moral preparedness’ for the next phases of this pandemic and for future pandemics will require an understanding of the moral values and normative concepts citizens use in their own decision-making. Three important elements of this preparedness are: conceptual clarity over what responsibility or respect mean in practice; better understanding of collective mindsets and how to encourage them; and a situated, rather than universalist, approach to the development of normative standards.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, 1.5MB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1080/23294515.2022.2040645
Authors
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Journal:
- AJOB Empirical Bioethics More from this journal
- Volume:
- 13
- Issue:
- 2
- Pages:
- 67-78
- Publication date:
- 2022-03-09
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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2329-4523
- ISSN:
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2329-4515
- Pmid:
-
35262468
- Language:
-
English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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1243135
- Local pid:
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pubs:1243135
- Deposit date:
-
2022-04-05
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Johnson et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2022
- Rights statement:
- © 2022 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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