A mass casualty situation requires critical decision making under immense pressure, mainly due to the likelihood of a shortage of time, information, and personnel. To formulate the best possible policies, ethical considerations must be made. Ethical issues, dilemmas, and conflicts that arise during such disasters are enormous.
All parties involved with preparation and responding to mass casualty events carry an ethical obligation to do no harm and plan to reduce the damage to all involved. It is essential but challenging to apply the aspect of a risk-benefit ratio. This involves using the ethical standards of distributive fairness for burdens and benefits to be shared equitably. Many obstacles and downsides regarding ethical policies in mass casualty event management occur. The mass and the social media approach and attitude, for instance, has been the frustrating issue of sharing pictures and videos of the dead and wounded people without any respect to those aggrieved. Policies formulated should respect the rights of the aggrieved while at the same time striking the delicate balance of not infringing on the freedom of expression.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Information that may not be particularly useful to the citizens but crucial to authorities may be reasonably withheld. This, on the other hand, does not give public authorities a leeway to hold information that may be sensitive and crucial in saving more lives of the citizens. If a location is, for example, attacked using biological or chemical weapons, it is prudent for those in the administration to tell the citizens so and guide them in further protective measures.
The policy framework should give priority to the casualties and the need to save live lives rather than agency supremacy battles. There should be a structure for rapid assessment (the approach could be interagency) to determine actual needs so when disaster strikes, resources and personnel will be sent to the required areas without ado.
