In Bioethics: The Basics by Alastair Campbell, he covers the central components of bioethics, demonstrating how vast the field really is. When I read a book, I notice it usually tends to date itself. I thought this book would be different - however, within the first chapter Campbell talks about bioethics "coming of age," which I thought to be somewhat ironic given the current state of the pandemic. Like many others, Campbell didn't see the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic coming, nor did he see the bioethical issues it would bring with it.
These issues being brought into the public sphere has devalued the study of bioethics. So many individuals take it for granted that a doctor must do no harm to them, that public health officials must defend the individual's life at the price of their own. Who is in charge of doing no harm to physicians? Who should take responsibility to protect public health officials being met with a deadly virus?
The answer is not simple, and these questions do not enumerate the depth of the bioethical issues raised by the pandemic. Instead of concrete instructions and willful players, our population is met with confusion and a lack of direction. The responsibility to keep our most vulnerable safe is so widely dispersed, people don't perceive it as their own duty. Even with the development of several effective vaccines, people are slow to take action to protect their neighbors. Social loafing is slowly killing Americans, but people continue to believe that someone else will pick up their slack.
The psychological and sociological studies that will follow this time in our history will be numerous. How could leaders allow their weakest to die and claim it a victory? What is going to be put into place to protect the healthcare workers that are still fighting against this invisible enemy? What new theory will be taught in gen psych or gen soc classes in universities across the country to explain why this pandemic unfolded the way it did? Most importantly, how are bioethicists to deal with this swirl of issues in the future?
As with all issues involving ethics, the resolution will depend on multiple factions of the population, including federal and state leaders, healthcare workers, scientists, historians, sociologists, psychologists, and the every day working person. This mountain is nowhere near conquered, but what we learn along the way will help us get there; after all, it's the climb that really counts.
