Ethics and Emergency Disaster Response. Normative Approaches and Training Needs for Humanitarian Health Care Providers

Abstract

Health care professionals who travel outside their familiar contexts to provide humanitarian health aid after disasters encounter ethical challenges that are both familiar and distinct from those they experience in their home settings. Few however, are given ethics training, preparation or resources for managing these situations in ways which can help them cope with moral distress and support ethical action as they attend to the needs of those they aim to assist. In a qualitative study we collected and analysed the stories of ethical challenges and moral experience of humanitarian health care professionals who travelled to settings around the globe where needs are widespread and elevated due to extreme poverty, large scale violence, or in the aftermath of natural disaster. Their stories illustrated how health care decision-making in disaster contexts is often beset by complicating factors such as resource scarcity, security conflicts and disparate cultural expectations.