Ebola is a communicable disease through ordinary contact and is deadly with fatality rate up to 90% (World Health Organization, 2014). Since the outbreak of Ebola or Marburg hemorrhagic fever, health care workers in the front line have been fulfilling their obligations, and at the same times, facing hazards in many ways. When dealing with the global epidemic, clearly ethics is of central importance. Notwithstanding, many largely applied ethical theories are insufficient to the task and fail to effectively address key challenges. This essay falls into two parts: 1) critique the isolation of infected people from their community and family, which is one of the obligation health care workers have (mainly use consequentialism); 2) debate the isolation
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But whether isolation of patients a morally praiseworthy action is still debated. Consequentialism is such a vague theory and is hard to use as well. It only asks for the best consequence which is considered as bring the most benefit for all. For this reason, mostly, consequentialism can only help the decision makers to see what is the stake for each possible decision but it is unavoidable that whether the decision is morally praiseworthy is influenced by the decision makers positionality and framing. Thus, there is no clear-cut suggestion under consequentialism. Consequentialism can be a good moral reason but since it is often too vague to apply, it should not be the only ethical theory one uses in practical. Because in practice, the argument is not about rightness and wrongness, but about kindness and another kind of kindness. So it is always too hard to say which is the ‘better result’. It is hard to say if the interdependent culture should be seen as wrong because it may result in further spread of the epidemic. On one hand, if isolation is right, it is not only causing harm by hurting the interest of the patients and the family but also a kind of violent intervention against their right of autonomy. On the other hand, if isolation is wrong, letting the patients stay in his/her community which is a densely inhabited district could bring bigger hazard for other people in the district, which setbacks their interests and causes future damage. Thus in reality, the debate is the kindness of health care workers who want the best for most populations with little personal emotions and the kindness of families who want to spend the last time with their beloved
But whether isolation of patients a morally praiseworthy action is still debated. Consequentialism is such a vague theory and is hard to use as well. It only asks for the best consequence which is considered as bring the most benefit for all. For this reason, mostly, consequentialism can only help the decision makers to see what is the stake for each possible decision but it is unavoidable that whether the decision is morally praiseworthy is influenced by the decision makers positionality and framing. Thus, there is no clear-cut suggestion under consequentialism. Consequentialism can be a good moral reason but since it is often too vague to apply, it should not be the only ethical theory one uses in practical. Because in practice, the argument is not about rightness and wrongness, but about kindness and another kind of kindness. So it is always too hard to say which is the ‘better result’. It is hard to say if the interdependent culture should be seen as wrong because it may result in further spread of the epidemic. On one hand, if isolation is right, it is not only causing harm by hurting the interest of the patients and the family but also a kind of violent intervention against their right of autonomy. On the other hand, if isolation is wrong, letting the patients stay in his/her community which is a densely inhabited district could bring bigger hazard for other people in the district, which setbacks their interests and causes future damage. Thus in reality, the debate is the kindness of health care workers who want the best for most populations with little personal emotions and the kindness of families who want to spend the last time with their beloved