PANDEMICS AND THE FUTURE OF ETHICS IN DEMOCRACIES

Résumé

The declaration of a disease as a pandemic not only shows the explosive magnitude of its geographic spread, but the intensity of its impact on human lives arising from its high attack rate. The impacts of the current COVID-19 (coronavirus SARS-CoV-2) disease is but a reminder of the life-threatening power of all pandemics, as well as their negative influence, especially within the economic and health sectors of the world. Besides human suffering and death induced directly by epidemics or indirectly by attendant economic strangulation, there is the issue of government mitigation efforts and control. At some point, measures of containment seem to fail the ethical tests of: respect for autonomy, the principle of beneficence, the principle of non-maleficence, and the principle of justice, thereby imperiling the democratic gains of societies. In this article, we discussed the impactful influence of pandemics on individual and social lives; we highlighted some well-intentioned but unethical interventions of governments to combat this menace. Following the hermeneutic and analytic methods, we conclusively argued that the intrusive nature of some government interventions stifle liberal principles, and imperil much of the gains of developing democracies.