[Ethical Duties in Disaster Preparedness.]

Abstract

The experience of the COVID-19 pandemic and the horizon of expectations in relation to climate change reminds us that it is a collective responsibility to anticipate to the best of our ability and knowledge the risks of foreseeable disasters and their potential impacts on vulnerable communities. The article will examine the meaning and status of moral duties regarding disaster preparedness by adopting a disaster ethics approach which draws on the interrelationship of bioethics with public health ethics and looks at the full cycle of disaster management and the corresponding cycle of protection of victims and professionals. After discussing some normative controversies accompanying well-known classifications of disasters and characterizing the ethical turn to preparedness in disaster management, it will be argued that preparedness duties include obligations relating to planning, anticipation, and prevention of disasters and that they are derivative and positive duties involving a series of prospective, shared and institutionally mediated responsibilities.